HATTIESBURG, Miss. - William Carey scored an unearned run in the bottom of the eighth inning to win the opener 5-4 here Saturday afternoon, but the third-ranked Eagles bounced back to blast the Crusaders 13-5 in Game 2 of the Southern States Athletic Conference doubleheader.

The rubber game of the three-game series will be played Sunday afternoon at 2. With the split, Faulkner moved to 30-8 overall and 12-2 in the league, while William Carey finished the day 24-12 overall and 8-5 in the conference.

In Game 1, Dario Polanco's three-run homer helped the Eagles build an early 4-0 lead. William Carey scored twice in the second to cut the lead in half, and Cody Christian's two-run bomb in the fourth tied it for the Crusaders. It stayed that way until the decisive eighth.

Nick Lowe opened the inning by drawing a walk off of Faulkner reliever Miguel Castellanos. James Land's pop up was then misplayed by Eagles' shortstop Onix Martinez, putting two on with no outs. After a balk by Castellanos, Adrian Brown was intentionally walked to load the bases. Tyler Odom then singled to left to end it.

Castellanos, the third Faulkner pitcher, took the loss to fall to 2-1 on the season. Lane Fazende (2-2) got the win in relief for the Crusaders. All of Faulkner's hits in the opener came from three players, with Polanco's three leading the way. Darius Jennings and Martinez each added two to the Eagles' seven hit attack.

In the second game, Mario Amaral, Polanco, T.J. Condon and Martinez all had RBI base hits in the first inning as the Eagles exploded for five first-inning runs to jump on top. Amaral's solo homer in the second added to the margin, and Morton's two-run double in the fourth pushed the lead to 8-0.

Brown's run-scoring single in the bottom of the fourth brought the Crusaders to within 8-1, and Faulkner starting pitcher Christian Torres struggled to find the strike zone an inning later, allowing William Carey to draw closer. Three walks and a hit batsman forced in a run to make it 8-2. Land's double then emptied the bases, and the Crusaders were right back in it at 8-5. Austin Moreland replaced Torres and struck out Brown to end the uprising.

Faulkner got all four runs back in the top of the sixth, plus one. Chase Morris had a two-run single in the inning, and Jennings' RBI base hit gave the Eagles an eight-run lead again at 13-5.

Moreland and Kurt Lipscomb, who pitched the seventh, were both impressive out of the bullpen. Torres got the win to improve to 7-1. Amaral and Polanco each had three hits in the Faulkner victory, while Martinez added two more.