Baseball loses 9-game winning streak to Doane

Photo description: CUNE pitcher Caden Bugarske releases a pitch
Photo credit: CUNE Photo Gallery
Daniel Kuefner
Sower Staff

The Concordia baseball team traveled to Crete for doubleheader action against Doane University on Monday, April 17, but lost both games and their nine-game winning streak with scores of 6-4 and 9-2.

The Bulldogs came into game one of the matchup as the top dog of the Great Plains Athletic Conference with a 15-3 GPAC record. In the first inning, Concordia took a two-run lead on an RBI single from junior Joey Grabanski and an RBI groundout from junior Alec Blakestaad.

On the bump, junior Caden Johnson pitched five and a third innings, only allowing two hits and three earned runs. Going into the bottom of the sixth, the Bulldogs held a 3-1 lead over the Tigers. In the bottom half of the sixth, the Tigers’ offense struck for five runs on four hits and finished game one with a 6-4 win over the Bulldogs.

Concordia had a rough start in game two, as Doane jumped out to an eight-run lead after scoring seven runs in the second. The Bulldogs only managed to get two runs in the game, with sacrifice flies in both the third and fourth innings. Doane came out on top, beating the Bulldogs with a score of 9-2.

Senior Teyt Johnson went 2-3 with a run scored; however, the Bulldogs struggled offensively to catch up to the Tigers. After dropping both games to the Tigers, the Bulldogs fell into a three-way tie with Doane and Morningside University for first place in the GPAC standings.

The team is now 29-13 on the season, and their GPAC record stands at 15-5. The team will look for a season sweep of Midland University this weekend as they play them twice in Fremont on Saturday, April 22, at 1 and 4 p.m., and then twice at home on Sunday, April 23, at 1 and 4 p.m.