SAN ANTONIO (April 27, 2019) – Oklahoma Christian now is on the outside looking in when it comes to qualifying for the Heartland Conference baseball tournament.

St. Mary's (Texas) completed a three-game sweep of the Eagles on Saturday at Dickson Stadium, using a big sixth inning to rally from a 3-0 deficit and beat OC 6-4. OC has dropped six straight games, five of those in league play.

St. Mary's (29-18, 9-9 Heartland) is tied with OC (27-18, 9-9) for fourth in the league standings and owns the tiebreaker over the Eagles thanks to the series win. The top four teams qualify for the conference tournament.

Both the Eagles (who entered the series fifth in the NCAA Division II South Central Region rankings) and Rattlers have three Heartland games remaining. OC will visit second-place Rogers State (29-15, 12-6) on Friday and Saturday while St. Mary's will play at league-leading Lubbock Christian (Texas) (33-12, 14-4) the same days.

Grant Lake put OC ahead with a single up the middle to score Garrett Wages in the second inning and the Eagles led 3-0 after run-scoring hits by Blake Empkey and Alex Garcia in the top of the third. St. Mary's answered with two runs in the bottom of the third, with Ryan McGowen's triple off OC starter Zachary Pape (5-4) the big blow.

The Rattlers poured it on during a four-run sixth inning with four runs on five hits, including a two-run single to left field by Jake Mares and an RBI single down the left-field line by Derek Mueller. After OC reliever Chase Berberich hit Johnny Hernandez with a pitch with the bases loaded, St. Mary's led 6-3.

Hunter Markwardt hit an inside-the-park home run in the seventh for OC, the second of his career, with the other coming April 20, 2018, in a win over St. Edward's (Texas). But that proved to be the Eagles' only hit over the final five innings against St. Mary's reliever Oscar Sepulveda (4-3), who pitched the final 6 2/3 innings for the Rattlers and struck out six.