WICHITA, Kan. – Completing its final home Heartland Conference series of the regular season, the Newman baseball team completed the series with a doubleheader Friday afternoon at McCarthy Field against St. Mary's but lost both games to close out the series.
 
The Jets (18-28, 5-16 Heartland) struggled to find their bats in Game 1 of the doubleheader as the Rattlers (23-21, 16-5 Heartland) won 7-0 and then went on to win Game 2, 5-3 in a contest that went down to the wire.
 
Newman held St. Mary's scoreless in the top of the first inning to start Game 1. Ked Bailey led off the for the Jets in the bottom of the first and singled up the middle to get on base and two at-bats later Aaron Mack singled to left field to put Bailey in scoring position at second with one out. A freak play happened the following at-bat when Nick Griffin singled to center field but ended up resulting in a double play to end the inning.
 
The Rattlers put up four runs in the top of the second inning and added another run in the top of the third to get out to a 5-0 lead. Channing Williams reached base with a fielder's choice in the bottom of the fourth with two outs and stole second base to get into scoring position but could not advance any further as the inning closed.
 
St. Mary's added a run in both the fifth and sixth innings to extend its lead out to 7-0. The Jets managed to only get two runners on base in the final three innings of Game 1 and fell 7-0.
 
The Rattlers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead by scoring two runs in the top of the first in Game 2. Newman settled down to hold St. Mary's scoreless in both the second and third innings, and got on the board in the bottom of the third when Brian Canfield singled to left field to score Bailey, to make the score 2-1 after three complete innings.
 
All would be quiet in both the fourth and fifth innings for both teams, but the Rattlers extend their lead by scoring one run in the sixth and two runs in the seventh to put the score at 5-1. It would be a 1-2-3 eighth inning as both teams headed into the final inning.
 
Newman held St. Mary's scoreless in the top of the inning and things would get interesting from there in the bottom of the ninth. Canfield led off with a single and two at-bats later Griffin would get on base after getting hit by a pitch with one out. The following at-bat Williams singled through the right side of the infield and during the play an error occurred to score Canfield, which made the score 5-2.
 
The following at-bat Jordan Doan walked to load the bases and two at-bats later Daniel Jahnke walked as well with two outs to plate Griffin and chip a little closer to the Rattler lead at 5-3. The bases would remain loaded however as Game 2 came to a close with St. Mary's escaping with a 5-3 victory to complete the day.
 
Newman is back home for its final home game of the season in a midweek nonconference game against Fort Hays State at McCarthy Field on Wednesday, starting at 5 p.m.