Baseball Walks Off No. 22 Concordia to Open Series

Baseball opened a four-game series with No. 22 Concordia on Saturday afternoon in Crete. With the wind blowing in from right field, the pitchers were able to control the opening game as Doane won 2-1 with a walkoff.

After a scoreless first inning, Concordia used a solo home run to left field to take a 1-0 lead. Doane came back in the bottom of the inning to tie the game on a two-out single from Aaron Vulcano.

Neither team had a serious threat until the seventh inning. The Bulldogs opened the top of the inning with a single followed by a sacrifice bunt to put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Doane's Kaden Crawford induced a pair of ground outs to keep Concordia off the scoreboard and set up the winning run for the Tigers.

Vulcano picked up an infield single to open the bottom of the inning and was moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt. Logan Amick was intentionally walked to bring up Brayden Jones. Jones hit a high chopper down the third base line and the throw from pitcher Alex Johnson was off line to first base to load the bases for Sam Kwapnioski. With two strikes against him, Kwapnioski was able to lift a fly ball to the outfield for a sacrifice fly to drive in Vulcano to win the game.

Crawford finished with a complete game victory to move to 4-0 on the season. He allowed one run on five hits and two walks while striking out five.

Vulcano led the Tigers with two hits as Doane out-hit the Bulldogs, 6-5. Dane Kelsey was 1-for-1 with two walks, scoring the first run of the game for the Tigers.

Official game time was 1:47.