Flawless baseball it was not.

Dubuque Wahlert scored 10 unearned runs in the first inning of the opener, then tallied four unearned runs in the first inning of the nightcap and routed Jefferson twice Friday at the J-Hawk diamond. Wahlert won the opener 18-3 in four innings and took the nightcap 11-0 in five.

The J-Hawks (5-13, 3-9 MVC) have lost six straight and nine of their last 10.

Jefferson Coach Mike Kuba said after Thursday's hard-fought 5-3 loss to Linn-Mar that the J-Hawks would have to play flawless ball to have a chance to beat Dubuque Wahlert (17-4, 10-2). The Golden Eagles came into the games ranked No. 2 in Class 3A.

"We just have to get better," Kuba said Friday night. "We have to put seven innings together of pitching, fielding and hitting.

"I know it's going to happen, and it's going to happen in baby steps. But we're at the halfway point of the season. We have to get better in gigantic steps."

The J-Hawks took a couple of gigantic steps backwards Friday.

Wahlert's lead-off batter, Riley McCarron, led off the game with a gravy grounder to shortstop that was booted for an error. Three more errors, six Wahlert hits and five stolen bases later and the Golden Eagles had 10 unearned runs.

"I felt like if we could have just gotten out of that with maybe giving up three runs, at least we would have had a ballgame," Kuba said.

Wahlert ended any hopes of a J-Hawk comeback by batting around and scoring six runs in the second inning.

JJ Reimer swatted two-run home runs in the first and second innings and was 3-for-3 with five RBIs to lead Wahlert's 14-hit attack.

McCarron had three doubles and drove in three runs in the nightcap.

McCarron was retired on a grounder to open the nightcap, but the next batter reached on catcher's interference. A walk and three straight hits plated four runs before the second out was recorded. A pair of passed balls put a runner at third and a hit batsman set up a double steal that scored another run. A walk and McCarron's double plated two more runs.

And that was the game. Jefferson managed four hits off Wahlert's Michael Kann. Two came in the bottom of the fifth.

Senior Michael Rooney was Jefferson's hitting star. He was 4-for-6 with a double and home run. He was 3-for-3 in the opener, when he hit a solo homer.

Kuba said the J-Hawks are frustrated right now and Rooney agreed.

"We're giving up way too many outs and that's one thing that's been happening way too often," Rooney said. "Sometimes we're giving up, it seems like. We need to stay focused."

Both Rooney and Kuba said they have not gone through anything like the losing spell the J-Hawks are experiencing.

"I've always been on winning teams," Rooney said. "I feel like I'm one of the leaders of the team and it's somewhat my responsibility to get us together. We need to figure out what's going on and we need to do it soon."

Kuba said his aim is to get the J-Hawks ready to be playing their best baseball by the time the postseason rolls around.

"We're going to keep dealing with it the best we can," Kuba said. "We're going to have to stay positive and work for the end of the season."

Jefferson hosts Iowa City West in a doubleheader Monday night.

Game 1

WAHLERT (18)
Riley McCarron, ss, 4 2 2 2, Connor Krueger, ss, 0 0 0 0, Nathan Funke, 1b, 2 0 0 1, Brady Schetgen, ph, 1 0 0 0, Hunter Rix, 1b, 0 0 0 0, JJ Reimer, c, 3 3 3 5, Cole Klostermann, ph-c, 1 0 1 1, Jack Hoffmann, 3b, 2 1 0 0, Gerald Lange, ph-3b, 1 0 0 0, Zach Brautigam, p, 2 0 1 0, Aaron Holmes, cr-ph, 1 2 0 0, Michael Kann, rf, 2 2 1 1, Brady Williams, ph-rf, 1 0 0 0, Joe Weber, dh, 2 2 2 3, Jimmy Collins, 2b, 1 0 0 0, Josh Link, 2b, 0 0 0 0, Tommy Denlinger, cf, 3 3 3 2, Deon Ploessl, cf, 0 0 0 0, Michael Dietzel, lf, 1 2 1 2, Matthew Sabers, ph-lf, 0 1 0 0. Totals 27 18 14 17.

JEFFERSON (3)
Tanner Unkel, 2b, 3 1 1 0, Michael Rooney, cf, 3 1 3 1, Alex Larson, p-3b, 2 0 0 1, Jordan McCormick, 1b, 3 0 0 0, Drew Striegel, c, 0 0 0 0, Drake Vanous, cr, 0 0 0 0, Chance Tiedtke, ss, 2 0 0 0, Jake Schmidt, dh, 2 0 1 0, Sam Techau, 3b, 0 0 0 0, Jordan Dee, p, 0 0 0 0, Austin Goodell, p, 0 0 0 0, Bailey Hollingsworth, rf, 1 1 0 0, Christian Knox, lf, 2 0 1 0. Totals 18 3 6 2.

Wahlert     (10)60 2 - 18 14 0
Jefferson    101 0 - 3 6 5

Brautigam and Reimer. Larson, Dee (1), Goodell (4) and Striegel. W-Brautigam. L-Larson. 2B-McCarron, Kann, Weber, Dietzel. HR-Reimer 2, Rooney. SB-McCarron 2, Kann, Weber, Denlinger, Rooney.

Game 2

WAHLERT (11)
McCarron, ss, 4 1 3 3, Funke, lf, 2 1 0 0, Sabers, lf, 0 0 0 0, Reimer, c, 3 1 0 1, Hoffmann, 3b, 2 3 2 2, Krueger, ph, 1 0 0 0, Brautigam, 1b, 2 1 2 1, Ploessl, ph, 0 0 0 0, Kann, p, 1 0 1 2, Holmes, cr, 0 1 0 0, Link, ph, 1 0 0 0, Weber, dh, 2 0 0 0, Collins, 2b, 0 0 0 0, Cole Klostermann, 2b, 0 0 0 0, Rix, ph, 1 0 0 0, Denlinger, cf, 2 1 0 0, Dietzel, rf, 1 1 1 0, Williams, rf, 1 1 1 0. Totals 23 11 9 9.

JEFFERSON (0)
Unkel, 2b, 2 0 0 0, Rooney, cf, 3 0 1 0, Larson, 3b, 2 0 1 0, McCormick, 1b, 2 0 0 0, Tiedtke, p, 1 0 0 0, Techau, p, 1 0 0 0, Ky Kramer, ss, 2 0 0 0, Hollingsworth, rf, 2 0 0 0, Colten Jourdan, c, 2 0 1 0, Aaron Gruwell, cr, 0 0 0 0, Knox, lf, 2 0 1 0. Totals 19 0 4 0.

Wahlert     712 10 - 11 9 0
Jefferson   000 00 -  0  4 2

Kann and Reimer. Tiedtke, Techau (3) and Jourdan. W-Kann. L-Tiedtke. 2B-McCarron 3, Brautigam, Williams, Rooney. HR-Hoffmann.