WICHITA, Kan. — Picking up another pair of strong starts from its pitching staff and batting .400 as a team, the Newman baseball team finished off a four-game sweep of Southwest Minnesota State with a pair of victories Sunday afternoon at McCarthy Field.
The Jets (10-2) are off to their best start in the Division II era and have won nine games in a row, topping their previous best of eight since joining the NCAA.
Kane McCarthy tossed a one-hitter in a 4-1 victory over the Mustangs (0-4) in Sunday's first game, and the Newman bats came to life late in a 16-2 win to close out the sweep.
The first game of the day started out much like the two games Saturday went, as Kane McCarthy worked a quick top of the first inning, followed in the bottom half by Aaron Mack getting hit by a pitch with two outs and Garett Thomas crushing a ball well over the fence in right to give the Jets an early 2-0 lead.
Those two runs would be all McCarthy needed as he breezed through the SMSU lineup over his seven-inning complete-game one-hitter. The sophomore allowed a solo home run in the top of the fourth and a walk in the seventh for the only base runners of the game, putting up clean sheets in the other five innings. It was the second straight complete-game victory for McCarthy, who struck out five and worked through the game in just 73 pitches.
The Jets responded to the Mustangs cutting the lead to one by pushing across a score in the bottom of the fourth. Jordan Doan singled up the middle and moved to second on the mishandled ball. He moved up to third on Brian Canfield's groundout, and scored on a wild pitch to tack on an insurance run. Canfield got his chance to score in the sixth, singling and eventually coming around to score on a Jacob Hamerle single to center.
The Jets cracked seven hits in the game, with seven different players picking up one each. Four different players scored the four runs for Newman.
After stranding a runner at third in the first inning of Game 2, the Jets put together a two-out rally in the second, starting when Daniel Jahnke was hit by a pitch. Nick Griffin followed by working a 1-2 count into a full count and lifting a triple to the wall in right. After a Jacob Hamerle walk, Griffin was knocked in by a Lucas Norton single in increase the lead to 2-0 early.
Mack knocked the second pitch he saw to start the third inning over the fence in right to bump the lead to 3-0. That was more than enough for starter Skylar Barnes, who was perfect through four innings and finished off his second win of the season by going the distance and allowing six hits and two runs while striking out nine.
The Newman offense went back to its slugging ways over the final three innings, starting with two unearned runs in the fourth and kicking off the fifth with four straight singles to help net four runs in the frame. The sixth was the back-breaker for the Mustangs, as the hosts sent 12 batters to the plate, cracked seven hits and added seven runs to the scoreboard. Canfield doubled to start things off, Nick Griffin followed two batters later with a two-run double, and Mack, Thomas and Doan added RBI singles to balloon the lead to 16-1.
Ten different Jets had hits in Game 2, including Mack and Griffin with three each and Tyler Bugner, Doan and Jahnke with a pair. Griffin piled on three RBIs, with Norton and Mach added two apiece.
The Jets take a day off before hitting the road for a single game Tuesday at Emporia State.
