NEW CARLISLE - The New Carlisle Newts (14-16) wrapped up the ORWBL regular season on Friday night with a series victory over the Kingsbury Knights, 6-5, 3-5, 3-2.
The Newts struck first in the opener with three solo home runs in the bottom of the first inning by Garrett Curless, Matt Soos, and Aidan Cotter.
Kingsbury knotted it back up in the top of the second. Cade Skornog hit a solo blast, and Sam Bull evened the score with a two-run shot to make it 3-3.
Curless gave the Newts the lead in the third with another home run, and Cotter added another in the fourth. Soos scored a much-needed insurance run in the fifth inning on a Colton Boren RBI single. The tally proved to be the difference in the game after Bull's second two-run dinger in the sixth.
In the second game, Noah Shail got the Newts on the board with a solo home run in the first. After picking up the win in the first game, Cotter threw three scoreless before finding trouble in the fourth - yet another Bull two-run homer.
Skornog and Bull again went deep in the fifth, and Adin Newman checked in with a solo shot in the sixth to give the Knights a 5-1 advantage. New Carlisle rallied with a two-run homer by Curless to cut the deficit in half, but could not get any closer.
Curless took the mound in the rubber match and was promptly greeted by a Bull two-run homer in the first. It would turn out to be the only scoring play of the game for the Knights.
The Newts erased the deficit in the second with back-to-back jacks by Curless and Shail. The game remained tied until the bottom of the fifth when Scott Soos lined one into the leftfield bleachers to give New Carlisle a 3-2 lead.
Despite the victorious finale, the Newts finished below the .500 mark for the second consecutive season and for the third time in the past six years. New Carlisle will be the fifth-seed in the National League playoffs which begin on Sunday, July 24. The Newts will face the Glenn Lee Skeeters in a best-of-three series.
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