WICHITA, Kan. — Getting another day of solid pitching and timely hitting, the Newman baseball team closed out a four-game sweep of Wayne State College with a pair of victories Sunday afternoon at McCarthy Field.
The Jets (5-2) got a complete-game shutout from Kane McCarthy to pick up a 2-0 victory in the opener over the Wildcats (0-4), and Aaron Mack blasted a three-run home run to help boost Newman to a 5-4 win in the series finale. It was the first four-game sweep for the Jets since taking four straight against Cameron March 9-10, 2012.
The Jets were able to get on the board in the bottom of the second, as Mitchell Beaudreau dropped a double into left center top open the frame, and was bunted over to third by Daniel Jahnke. Jordan Doan put the ball in play in the next at-bat, reaching on an error and allowing Beaudreau to score to give the hosts the lead.
Newman put runners on in every inning, but was able to scrape across an insurance run in the sixth with two outs. Jacob Hamerle walked before Tyler Bugner singled to bump him to second, and Hamerle came around to score as Mack reached on an error after putting the ball in play with two strikes.
McCarthy twirled a complete-game three-hitter to keep the Wildcats at bay, striking out eight and giving up just two walks. He picked up the final two outs of the sixth with the bases loaded and the one-run lead, picking up a strikeout and a fly out, and set them down in order on 10 pitches to close out the seventh.
Wayne State scored its first run of the day in the top of the second inning of Game 2, but the Jets didn't trail for long, as Jordan Doan reached on an error with two outs and Paul Rupnik knocked him in with a single to tie things at 1-1. After the Wildcats went ahead again with a single run in the third, Newman answered in a big way, as Lucas Norton and Andrew Russell reached on back-to-back singles to open the inning to set the stage for Mack's three-run home run to right.
The Jets ballooned the lead to three runs in the fifth, which proved to be an all-important run. Bugner beat out an infield single and moved to second on a throwing error, then bumped up to third when an attempt to pick him off skipped into centerfield. Garett Thomas drove him in with a single to center to make things 5-2.
Starter Skyler Barnes went the first five innings, giving up two runs, just one of them earned, on five hits. The bullpen came in to work the last four, as the Wildcats scored single runs in the sixth and seventh before Joe Cannady allowed just a single runner to reach on an error to record the two-inning save.
Bugner, Thomas and Hamerle each recorded three hits on the day, while Mack led with three RBIs on his three-run shot in Game 2. The Jets hit the road Tuesday for a single game at in-state rival Washburn before heading home for a four-game series against Southwest Minnesota State Saturday and Sunday.
