Baseball starts off season with pair of wins, 11-7 and 2-1
Junior Ernie Snyder (36) making a pitch (photo from previous game).
Photo credit: Josiah Seabaugh
By Cohen Carpenter
No. 20 ranked Concordia started their 2025 campaign off with a bang Friday afternoon with a pair of ranked wins: 11-7 over No. 23 Oklahoma City University and 2-1 over No. 15 Bellevue University.
The Stars (Oklahoma City) came into the season following a 2024 campaign which featured a 35-18 overall record and an appearance in the opening round of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics tournament. However, the changing of the calendars has not been kind to the Stars, as they stumbled out of the gate in 2025 going 1-4 in their opening weekend bout of games.
The Bruins (Bellevue) had even more prestigious pre-season accolades, garnering a No. 15 national ranking to start the year. A fitting ranking for a highly touted program: Bellevue came off a 39-14 2024 which saw the Bruins in the opening round of the NAIA tournament. Bellevue was in the NAIA 2023 World Series as well.
Saturday’s action began in a bout with the home team, Oklahoma City University where the Bulldogs scored first and scored last in a contest that eventually required extra innings which ended up being a testament to Ryan Dupic’s squad’s resilience.
“The first one, we weren’t very clean late and it got away from us,” said Dupic in a post-game interview with Director of Athletic Communication Jake Knabel. “I was proud of our guys for continuing to battle and put good at bats together. I was pleased with how we hung in there and stayed resilient. Our two starting pitchers were really, really good. Jimmy Blumberg was great, and Alex Draper was great. The bottom of the order gave us a lift.”
In the final two innings of the seven-inning game, Bulldog pitching gave up six runs on five hits with three errors worked into the mess. Nevertheless, down one run (5-4) in the seventh with their backs to the wall, Concordia’s bats came alive. With one out, junior utility man Jaeden Jordahl singled up the middle to get a man on base. Another single on behalf of senior catcher Tanner Tompkins put runners at the corners. Both junior outfielder Bronx Lewis and senior infielder Jimmy Blumberg drew walks, the latter driving in a run. Another bases-loaded walk and a sac fly later, and Concordia boasted a two-run lead with a half inning to go.
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, in the bottom of the seventh a pair of errors led to a pair of runs, extending the match into the eighth. Concordia’s defense was able to muster a better performance in extras however as a four-run top of the eighth was matched by a one hit, zero error and zero run bottom of the eight.
In game one, Blumberg and sophomore right fielder Alex Draper owned five of the team’s 11 total hits, one of which was a Blumberg double that drove in the winning runs in the top of the eighth. On the mound, senior starter Braxton Greenburg put together an impressive debut, cobbling together 5.1 innings pitched, striking out six while only allowing two walks, three hits and one earned run.
Although, if a pitching duel is what you were after, game two of Concordia’s double header was more your speed. The matchup versus Bellevue saw the season debut of Alex Johnson on the mound, now a graduate student. This was a monumental moment for the team and in Johnson’s collegiate career as the starter had missed the 2024 season and a large chunk of the 2023 season due to injury. Friday afternoon marked his first appearance on the mound in well over a year.
Johnson didn’t disappoint. He struck out nine batters in only 4.2 innings of work only allowing one hit, a walk and one earned run over that span. Also important to note were the efforts of sophomore pitcher DJ Anderson. In 2.1 innings of work out of the bullpen, Anderson allowed nary a hit, walk or run to close out the game.
As for the Bulldog offense, Concordia got the lead early and didn’t relinquish it throughout the game. In the first, a Jordahl double drove in senior third baseman Jaden Quinn and in the second, Blumberg drove a sac fly into right, driving in Lewis.
All in all, seven hits and four walks led to two Concordia runs and thanks to the efforts of Johnson and Anderson, that was enough to get the job done.
Looking past opening weekend, Concordia will be back in action in Joplin, Missouri, where a Saturday, February 15 doubleheader versus Dakota State University and Mission University gives way to a Sunday doubleheader versus Graceland University and William Penn University.
