LEBANON, Ill. – The Parkside baseball team earned a split at McKendree to close out the 2018 season, winning game one 7-2 before falling 14-9 in game two.
 
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The Rangers finished the season 6-31 overall and 5-19 in the GLVC in the final year as a member of the conference. Parkside will switch to the GLIAC beginning the 2018-19 season.
 
In game one, Nicholas Rana tossed another gem, going all 7.0 innings allowing just two runs on five hits and four walks with eight strikeouts. Rana finished the season 4-3 overall and led the team in ERA (3.96), wins, complete games (5), innings (63.2) and strikeouts (49).
 
Parkside pushed a pair of runs across in the top of the second on a two-run home run by Paul Weise, the first of the freshman's career. After the Bearcats scored one in the bottom of the fourth, the Rangers finished the game with two in the fifth, one in the sixth and two in the seventh. Parkside got an RBI double by Lane Ochs and RBI singles by Hunter Weddell, Justin Bennett and Weise.
 
Weise and Weddel each went 3-for-4 while Weise drove in three runs. Bennett finished 2-for-4 with two runs.
 
In game two, McKendree got off to a hot start, scoring four in the bottom of the first inning. The Rangers scored one in the top of the second off a Weise RBI single and broke through with a huge seven-run fifth inning to make it 8-6 at the time. After the big Parkside inning, McKendree erased it with five runs in the fifth and scored three unanswered to end the game.
 
In the Rangers' fifth inning, Nick Sramek hit a two-run double while Max Widmar and Bennett each had RBI singles. The big hit in the inning came on a three-run single to right center by Santino Ruffalo. Troy Bittenbender hit a solo home run in the sixth inning as well, but McKendree was too much to handle.