WICHITA, Kan. – Moving up the series a day because of potential weather concerns, the Newman baseball team got underway for its final home Heartland Conference series of the season against St. Mary's Thursday afternoon at McCarthy Field, but fell 14-6 to open up the series.
 
The Rattlers (21-21, 14-5 Heartland) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, scoring a run in each of the first-two innings of the contest, but the Jets (18-26, 5-14 Heartland) stole the lead in the bottom of the second by scoring three runs to make it 3-2, after two complete innings.
 
With the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the second, Jacob Hamerle had a RBI walk to get Channing Williams home for the first run of the inning. The following at-bat Ked Bailey sent the ball to right center to score Daniel Jahnke from third and BJ Tieben from second to put Newman out in front at 3-2, which completed the scoring in the bottom of the second.
 
St. Mary's got the lead back in the top of the third, scoring two runs and then following that up by putting five runs on the board in the top of the fourth to make the score 9-3. Newman cut into the Rattler lead by scoring a run in the bottom of the fourth, when Bailey singled up the middle with two outs to score Jordan Doan from third base, making the score 9-4 after four complete innings.
 
All was quiet for both teams in the fifth inning, but St. Mary's tacked on another run in the top of the sixth to make it 10-4. Newman scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh, with one run coming from a Doan double to left center and the second run of the inning off a wild pitch, scoring Williams to put the score at 10-6.
 
The Rattlers went on to score two runs in the eighth and ninth innings, hanging on to win Game 1 of the series by a score of 14-6.
 
Bailey went 4-of-5 from the plate, including three RBIs to lead the Jets offensively.
 
Newman completes its final home conference series of the season Friday at noon, including a Senior Day ceremony in between the doubleheader.