WICHITA - The Newman baseball team posted a split in its first home Heartland Conference series of the season, dropping a 6-8 eight-inning decision to Texas-Permian Basin in game one, before earning an 8-5 win over the Falcons in Saturday's late game at McCarthy Field.

Game1 :Texas-Permian Basin 6, Newman 3 (8 Innings)
An early pitcher's duel turned into an error-fest late in the game as the Falcons needed eight innings of a scheduled seven-inning game to defeat the Jets, 6-3. UTPB's Felix Cardenas struck out nine of the first 10 Jets he faced, including a streak of six-straight strikouts between the second and third innings, while Newman's Steven Trevino retired 14 of the first 15 batters he faced in the contest.

The Falcons broke a scoreless tie with a single run in their half of the sixth inning. As the second batter of the inning, Chandler Goode singled to shortstop, advanced to second on a Chris Wagner single to left field, and scored the first run of the game thanks to an RBI single through the left side by Jeremy Miller to give UTPB a 1-0 advantage going into the bottom of the sixth.

Newman responded with two runs in its half of the sixth. John Bonebrake immediately tied the game with an opposite-field home run over the right field fence. With two out in the inning, Ryan Peterson kept the Jets alive with a single to right field. Brandox Cox cashed in on Peterson's hit, sending him across the plate with a deep double to right field, and sending the Jets into the final scheduled inning with a 2-1 advantage.

Errors began mounting for the Jets in the seventh, when Newman committed two miscues, and allowed the Falcons to tie the game with a solo run in the seventh. The Jets couldn't put anything together in their half of the inning, and forced extra innings.

Newman appeared to have a win in hand with two outs in the top of the eighth, but what should have been a routine fly ball to left by Kevin Enkelmann turned into disaster when it was misplayed by the Jets left fielder, allowing two runs to score. Two more runs scored in the inning, and the Falcons took a 6-2 lead with one at-bat remaining for the hosts.

The Jets did their best to counter in the bottom of the eighth, but could come up with just one run en route to the 6-2 loss.

Zach Biery was tagged with the loss, and fell to 2-5 after pitching just two-thirds of an inning, while allowing two un-earned runs on two hits.

UTPB's Cardena finished the game with 11 strikeouts in six complete innings.

Game 2: Newman 8, Texas-Permian Basin 5
Newman overcame an early deficit and rode a big sixth inning to an 8-5 win to split the day. The Falcons were dealt a serious blow in the fourth inning, when starting pitcher Connor Lewis left the game in an ambulance with a dislocated ankle after a play at the plate.

UTPB opened the game with a single run in the second, and added three more in the third to take an early 4-0 advantage. The Jets responded in the fourth, when Brandon Cox opened the inning with a single through the right side. Mike Williams advanced Cox to second when he reached base thanks to a mis-played ball by the UTPB short stop. Cox then scored on an RBI single to right field by Picos Soto. An errant throw by the UTPB second baseman allowed Williams to score, and moved Soto to third. Soto took advantage of another UTPB miscue, scoring on a passed ball, and bringing the Jets to within one, 4-3. That's when disaster struck the Falcons. In an attempt to tag Soto out at the plate, Lewis suffered a dislocated ankle, and was carted off the field after a 20 minute delay.

The Falcons scored a run for their lost team-mate in the fifth, and took a 5-3 lead into the sixth, but the Jets put up five runs in the sixth thanks to three hits, two hit batsmen, and two walks, and took control of the game with an 8-5 advantage going into the Falcons at-bat.

UTPB went down in order in the seventh, and the Jets salvaged the Saturday split with the 8-5 win.

Brent McKinnon pitched six innings for the Jets, and earned the win to improve to 3-2 tihs season. McKinnon gave up eight hits which led to five runs, three of which were earned. Jacob Burch relieved McKinnon in the seventh, and earned his first save of the season.

The Jets and Falcons will try to settle the series Sunday with a 1 p.m. contest at McCarthy Field.