Baseball wins two-game Good Friday series, 5-4 and 14-0
Photo credit: Josiah Seabaugh (photo from previous game)
By Maddy Peters, Sports Editor
The Concordia baseball team began a 4-game series against the Dordt University Defenders on Good Friday winning the first game 5-4 and the second 14-0.
A rough first inning in the first game by senior pitcher Caden Johnson led to a narrow comeback win in the first.
Concordia was in for a rough one out of the gate when Johnson’s first pitch was a home run for Dordt’s Phoenix West. The inning only became worse for the Bulldogs as Johnson then hit two more Defenders and pitched another home run giving Dordt all four of their runs.
After a couple innings without any action, Concordia began whittling down Dordt’s lead in the fourth. Senior Alec Blakestad scored off a double from fellow senior Jose Cevallos and senior Bradley Hallock scored off a single from junior Ty Nekoliczak.
The runs continued in the top of the fifth with Blakestad and junior Jaiden Quinn hitting single-run homers to tie up the game. Quinn would break the tie in the top of the seventh with a second home run.
Johnson was the starting pitcher for the Bulldogs pitching 3.2 innings. He had two hits for two runs, five strikeouts and four errors. Senior Jacob Lycan relieved Johnson and pitched 2.1 innings. Lycan was credited with the win and finished with one hit for no runs and had three strikeouts. Senior Maverick Wylder pitched the last inning for Concordia and had two strikeouts and one flyout for a perfect inning. Wylder was credited with a save.
The second game was an absolute rout for the Bulldogs who scored most of their runs in the first inning. In fact, Concordia scored half of their runs before they got their first out. Dordt changed pitchers seven times throughout the game, going through a total of 11 pitchers in the double header.
The game started off strong with a home run from senior Jay Adams to put Concordia in the lead. Quinn and freshman Matt Rhoades would also hit homers in the first inning. Quinn’s was a 3-run and Rhoades was a 2-run. Senior Joey Grabanski would also hit a couple home runs with one in the third and another in the fourth.
Junior Braxton Greenburg was the starting pitcher for the Bulldogs and pitched three innings. He had two hits and four strikeouts. Junior Qwin Zabokrtsky relieved Greenburg and was the pitcher credited with the win with zero hits and three strikeouts.
Quinn led the team with five RBIs for the day. Rhoades finished with three. Grabanski has raised his career home run count to 71, and inched closer to second place in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics no. 2 career home run spot. Steve Dover (1998-2001) holds the position with 72 career home runs.
The team is now 21-8 overall and 5-3 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. They continue their series against Dordt on March 30 with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.
