MONTGOMERY, Ala. - No. 21 Campbellsville (Ky.) and No. 10 Faulkner took different paths but ended up in the same location here Tuesday - in the winner's bracket of the Montgomery Bracket of the NAIA Baseball National Championships played at Harrison Field.

Campbellsville broke open a close game late, scoring four runs in the eighth inning to beat error-prone Northwood (Fla.) 6-2, while Faulkner ripped 10 extra-base hits in a 17-2 rout of Lyon (Ark.) to set up a Wednesday afternoon matchup between the Tigers (29-11) and the Eagles (46-12). The winner of the 3 p.m. battle will find themselves in the driver's seat in the five-team, double-elimination event.

Earlier Tuesday, Lyon knocked off St. Francis (Ill.) 9-3 in a showdown between the four and five seeds, which set the stage for the top-seeded Eagles' prolific offensive performance against the Scots in the day's final game. In addition to the Faulkner-Campbellsville matchup, Wednesday's schedule has St. Francis taking on second-seeded Northwood in an elimination game at 11 a.m., with the winner advancing to play Lyon in another elimination game at 7 p.m.

Righthander Jack Charleston was the beneficiary of the Eagle onslaught, coasting to his ninth victory against only one loss. He surrendered four hits in six innings and just one run. The reliever trio of Patrick McGrady, Vinny Lujan and Julian Esquibel closed it out for the Eagles, who had a total of 18 hits in the win.

"Go look at the other Opening Round brackets, and you'll learn really fast that you can't take anything for granted," Faulkner head coach Patrick McCarthy said. "Our bats were alive tonight, and now looking back at our scrimmages the past week or so I should've seen it coming. We were hitting our pitchers pretty well, and I was worried about our staff a bit. Whenever you can get that many hits and keep the pressure on a team like that, good things will normally happen."

After a scoreless first inning Faulkner, the visitor in the game due to a pre-game coin flip, scored in each of its next eight at-bats. The Eagles posted two runs in the second to take the lead and never let up, crossing the plate 10 times in the final three frames.

Edgar Figueroa and Nick Caine had three hits and four RBIs apiece for Faulkner, with Figueroa adding a double and a triple and Cain a double and a home run. Dario Polanco also had three hits, with Kevin Torres and Cody Sos collecting two each for the Eagles. Randy Joung, Figueroa and Cain all scored three times, while Polanco and Torres crossed the plate twice.

Joe Campbell's two hits paced the Scots. Justin Braswell (7-4) took the loss for Lyon, allowing nine runs on eight hits in six innings of work.

In Game 1, Lyon (34-12) built a comfortable lead then held on for the victory. Griffin Glaude, who was also the winning pitcher, blasted a two-run homer in the top of the third to give the Scots a 2-0 lead. Easton Moore singled in another run in the third to make it 3-0, and Dylan Wooten's RBI double in the fifth pushed the advantage to 4-0.

Wooten tripled in another run in the seventh to make it 5-0, but Evan Johnson was cut down at the plate trying to score the sixth run of the game for the Scots.

Glaude improved to 7-1 on the season, allowing five hits and striking out four in six innings of work. 

The Lyon bullpen struggled in the bottom of the eighth, as St. Francis rallied for three runs. Matt Scott singled off of Trenton Coles to trim the margin to 5-1, then Mike Chimera greeted Kyle Cunningham with a run-scoring single to cut the lead to 5-2. Kjeld Torkelson singled down the line in left to make it 5-3 before Scots' head coach went back to the bullpen for Tyler Tognarine, who coaxed Brandon Mendoza to hit into an inning-ending double play.

In the top of the ninth the Scots added some insurance, with Glaude's RBI single increasing the lead to 6-3. Dan Darling then entered in relief of St. Francis' starter Adam Panayotovich, and he allowed Joseph Sitzman's two-run single and Colt Harmon's sacrifice fly as the lead ballooned to 9-3.

Tognarine, who also pitched the ninth for the Scots, earned his fourth save of the season,

Panayotovich took the loss for the Saints (27-27) to fall to 12-3 on the season.

In Game 2, No. 2 seed Northwood (Fla.) and No. 3 seed Campbellsville (Ky.) locked up in a pitcher's dual into the late innings before a four-run Tiger eighth inning sealed it.

Campbellsville jumped on top in the first, with Carlos Torres' RBI single giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead. The Seahawks tied it in the second when Joee Reyna doubled in a run, and took a 2-1 advantage in the fifth on Carlos Contreras' sacrifice fly.

The Tigers tied it in the top of the seventh when Richard Ramirez, who had reached on an error by Northwood leftfielder Brandon Crawford, scored on Chris Allen's sacrifice fly. 

Campbellsville grabbed the lead an inning later on a wild sequence. With the bases loaded, Alex Kline singled up the middle to score two runs, but a pair of throwing errors by the Seahawks cleared the bases with Kline scoring the fourth run on the play for a 6-2 Tiger lead.

Northwood got off the deck in its half of the eighth, however, with the first three batters reaching on singles to load the bases. Reliever Mario Morales then entered for the Tigers, and wiggled out of the jam. He struck out Brandon Crawford for the first out, then pinch hitter Andrew Danner took a third strike on a full count for the second out. Seahawk leadoff hitter Gabby Mundo flew out to center to end the threat.

Morales pitched a perfect ninth to earn his first save of the season. Casey Congleton (2-0), in relief, earned his first victory of the year. Andres Caraveo (6-2) took the loss for the Seahawks (39-13).