MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Faulkner scored six times in the first inning on only one hit, and then knocked out William Carey when the bats warmed up en route to a 13-2 victory here Friday night at Paterson Field to advance to the Southern States Athletic Conference tournament championship game.

The Eagles (45-12) were the beneficiaries of six walks, a hit batter and a Crusader error in the decisive first, with starter J.D. Little and reliever Jace Belcher both struggling to find the strike zone. Faulkner then began to pound the William Carey pitching staff, collecting 10 hits on four more relievers. Dennis Morton and Nick Cain each had solo home runs, while Robert Llera added a two-run double to the onslaught.

The lead ballooned to 13-0 by the sixth inning, allowing Faulkner head coach Patrick McCarthy to get his starters some rest for Saturday's title matchup. The Eagles will play either Auburn Montgomery or Mobile for the championship. The two teams played a late game Friday night, and the Rams would need to win that one and beat AUM again Saturday morning to prevent an all-Montgomery final.

The tourney finale is scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. first pitch.

"Our team is starting to show more patience at the plate, and that's a good sign offensively for us," said McCarthy, whose team has scored 28 runs in its last two tournament games. "And our staff is starting to pitch to contact, which is what our program has lived by since we've been here. If we continue to do those things, I like our chances to be successful."

Victor Arche, a first team All-SSAC selection, won his 11th game of the season for the Eagles against just two losses, tossing five scoreless innings before allowing the first William Carey run in the sixth. The crafty lefty struck out five and didn't walk a batter in his six innings of work, then turned the ball over to the Eagles' bullpen to close things out. Tyler Campbell, Kurt Lipscomb and Alejandro Castro combined to allow a run on five hits the rest of the way.

Cain, Morton, Llera and Randy Joung all drove in a pair of Faulkner runs, with Joung and Cain each collecting two hits. Chris Madera, Dario Polanco, Kevin Torres and Cain scored two runs apiece.

After dropping two-of-three games to William Carey in the regular season, resulting in the Eagles' only SSAC series loss, Faulkner left no doubt in back-to-back routs of the Crusaders. In Thursday night's 15-4 victory, McCarthy's team erupted for 17 hits, including eight extra-base hits.

"We have never been concerned about winning games," McCarthy said. "We've always preached to our guys to do their jobs, inning by inning, and the winning will take care of itself. It's not about winning a trophy tomorrow. Win or lose, if we feel we improved as a team then we'll be happy with that. We have a lot more baseball to play."

Faulkner will be one of nine hosts of an Opening Round site in the upcoming NAIA Baseball National Championships. The 45-team national tournament field and seedings will be released May 8, with the Montgomery Bracket taking place May 12-15 at Faulkner's Harrison Field.