WICHITA, Kan. (April 13, 2019) – Oklahoma Christian needed to sweep its three-game series at Newman (Kan.) to keep pace in a competitive Heartland Conference baseball race and thanks to Alex Garcia, the Eagles finished the job on Saturday.

Garcia, a senior from Grand Prairie, Texas, stroked two doubles and drove in four runs and OC –ranked ninth in the South Central Region – scored early and often en route to a 15-4 win over the Jets at McCarthy Field that was shortened to seven innings due to the 10-run rule.

With the win, OC (25-12, 8-4 Heartland) moved into a tie for second in the league with Rogers State (24-12, 8-4), three games behind Lubbock Christian (Texas) (29-9, 11-1). The top four teams at the end of the regular season will qualify for the conference's postseason tournament.

OC went 6-1 this season against Newman (13-22, 1-11), beating the Jets in a neutral-site game in Cleburne, Texas, on Feb. 7 before taking two of three in a mandatory nonconference series in Oklahoma City on March 15-16.

This week, the Eagles won the opener 9-4 but needed last-inning heroics to survive in the series' second game on Friday, escaping with a 9-8 win despite committing seven errors. They seized control early Saturday against Newman starter Andrew Snyder (3-6) with a seven-run third inning that gave them a 9-1 lead.

Each of OC's four hits in the inning scored a run – a single to right field by Garcia, a two-run triple down the left-field line by  Garrett Wages, a single to center field by Kevin Collyar and a three-run double down the right-field line by Callen Crockett.

Paul Rupnik's two-run double keyed a three-run Newman rally in the bottom of the third, but OC starter Zachary Pape (5-2) settled down and closed his six-inning stint with three shutout innings.

Meanwhile, OC continued building its lead, scoring once in the fifth and three more in the sixth, two on a double to left-center field by Garcia that made it 13-4. Two Newman errors and another RBI double by Garcia extended OC's lead to 15-4 in the top of the seventh and Connor Litterell pitched a scoreless bottom of the seventh to close the game out.

Garcia and Errett Edwards each had three hits for the Eagles, while Crockett, Collyar and Hunter Markwardt each scored three runs. Markwardt singled in his final at-bat in the seventh inning, extending his hitting streak to 23 games.

The Eagles will host Southwestern Oklahoma State in a nonconference game Tuesday before hosting Arkansas-Fort Smith on Thursday and Friday for a key Heartland series.