Concordia baseball’s first season home games end with a win, 12-0, and loss, 3-1 against Northwestern
By Maddy Peters, Sports Editor
The Concordia baseball team split the first day of its series with the Northwestern College Red Raiders at home Thursday evening, winning the first game 12-0 and losing the second game 3-1.
The opening home games of the season were an important milestone for head coach Ryan Dupic, who achieved his 300th career win with the first game shutout.
The first game was scoreless thanks to the efforts of senior pitcher Caden Johnson (3-1) who pitched a whopping six innings and only had two hits. He had six strikeouts as well. Junior Nate Weaver, who relieved Johnson pitched the last inning, had zero hits, letting Northwestern hit two flyouts and a groundout to end the seventh inning and the game.
The Bulldogs had a rough time getting good hits off Northwestern. They managed singles and consistently left people on base but could not get players back to home plate.
That changed in the fifth inning as Concordia filled up the plates and kept hitting balls past the fielders. Senior Jose Cevallos had the first big bat of the day with a double that netted him two RBIs. The next bat was junior Tanner Tompkins who hit a single and allowed two more runs to come through.
The bottom of the sixth saw senior Alec Blakestad and junior Jaiden Quinn hit two home runs to seal the win for the Bulldogs. Blakestad netted himself two RBIs with his homer while Quinn’s bomb was a four-run homer as he cleared the bases. That was the 60th career home run for Quinn who already has 14 for the season.
Northwestern took an early lead in the second game with a run off a sacrifice groundout. Concordia was unable to respond till the bottom of the fourth with a run off a single from Tompkins.
The Red Raiders broke the tie in the top of the seventh with a single that sent two runners home. The Bulldog batters failed to get another hit off to bring the game back.
Junior Braxton Greenburg and senior Maverick Wylder were the pitchers for the game. Greenburg was the starter pitcher and went for six innings. He had three hits for one run, eight strikeouts and recorded one error. Wylder (2-1) pitched the seventh inning and had one hit for two runs, one strikeout and recorded two errors.
The team is now 18-7 overall and 2-2 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. They continue their series against Northwestern with another double header on March 22. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.
