HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Faulkner scorched William Carey pitching for 11 hits and broke open a close game with a four-run eighth en route to a 10-5 victory here Friday night in the opener of a three-game Southern States Athletic Conference series.

With the victory, the top-ranked Eagles won their 10th in a row and improved to 28-5 overall and 11-2 in the SSAC. Faulkner still leads Brewton-Parker by two games in the conference standings. William Carey fell to 15-15 overall and 6-7 in the league.

Faulkner's Thomas Dorminy earned the victory, improving to 6-0. Josh Wood fell to 3-3, taking the loss for the Crusaders. 

"We played really good baseball tonight," Faulkner head coach Patrick McCarthy said. "It's always good to get off to this kind of start on the road in a conference series."

Faulkner jumped on top in the first, with a Robert Llera run-scoring single and a Esteban Paula RBI double staking the Eagles to a 2-0 lead. The Crusaders tied it in the second, however, scoring a pair of runs on only one hit. Both runs crossed the plate on infield grounders.

The Eagles regained control in the fourth, with Luis Sanchez breaking the tie with a bases-loaded single. Chris Madera then drew a walk, forcing in another run, and Michael Cruz followed with a sacrifice fly to give Faulkner a 5-2 advantage.

William Carey put together its first multiple hit inning together in the fifth, scoring a run to trim the margin to 5-3. Llera doubled in another Faulkner run in the sixth, giving the Eagles their three-run lead back. Faulkner broke the game open in the eighth, with Luis Sanchez, Madera and Llera all driving in runs as the Eagles built a 10-3 lead. William Carey added two runs in the ninth before Patrick McGrady retired the side for Faulkner.

The Eagles and Crusaders conclude the series Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader. First pitch of the opener is set for 1.