MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Just as they did in the 2016 Opening Round, the Faulkner Eagles rebounded from a loss to Vanguard in the Montgomery Bracket to win in the closing match of the series and punch their ticket to the World Series in Lewiston, Idaho. After suffering a setback in Wednesday night's classic matchup, Faulkner came out for Game 9 of the tournament swinging and ready to avenge the loss. The top-seeded Lions put up a valiant effort, as they had throughout the entire tournament, with two home runs and more amazing hitting with two outs on the board, continuing a trend. However, the Eagles also used the longball to their advantage and received 13 walks from nine Lion pitchers, two more than the number used in their win over Faulkner, while allowing just two and none before the seventh inning. However, the visitors retired 10 Faulkner batters to keep it closer, compared to just five for Faulkner. All told, the hosts claimed the spot with a wild 20-10 victory over Vanguard, who was otherwise absolutely deserving of the berth, at Harrison Field to advance to their eighth consecutive World Series and ninth in the last decade.

J.C. Toro got the start for Faulkner, who worked seven innings and 92 pitches with 11 hits and three strikeouts against a strong Lion offense. Vanguard's starting ace, Michael Kashou, lasted just two frames with three strikeouts to three hits and four walks.

The Eagles, once again the visitor on the scoreboard, saw the first two batters in their order, Sam Anthony and Jonathan Villa, register singles to lead off the game. A close call on a groundout by Alex Arauz plated Anthony for the game's first run, while an Isaac Phillips single scored Isaiah Brooks. After a 1-2-3 bottom frame, Kashou struck out two, while walking two others, before a Villa flyout ended the top of the second. The home half began with a strikeout by Toro and a putout of Joe Johnson at first by Villa, the senior catcher, after the dropped third strike. Following a single, Justin Lara caught Isaiah Lee's flyout. Phillips closed the frame by stealing a phenomenal out along the fence when he caught a flyout to the third base foul territory.

The Faulkner bats would explode in the top of the third after two more walks. Phillips reached base on a wild throw by third baseman Omar Ortiz that brought second baseman Matt Land off the bag. New pitcher Justin Graves then walked two more on full counts, with John Michael Mathews and Tommy Reyes-Cruz getting on base to score Shawn Ross and Arauz, respectively. In the next at-bat, Tyler Paulsen provided the first highlight-reel play in his final game at Harrison Field by blasting a homer to center for a grand slam and an 8-0 lead before Vanguard had even earned an out.
Any notions of a runaway win dissolved in the bottom of the fourth, though, which saw five runs narrow the score. An Ortiz deep double pushed Aki Buckson home before the all-important second out. A Grady Conner single to right scored Ortiz. From there, a Land single to the mound and a double steal by the two runners set the stage for another multi-run dinger for Luke Arias over the left field fence. The Faulkner response began almost immediately, when Lara doubled to deep left on a full count off a new pitcher, coming just shy of a home run of his own. Anthony promptly stepped to the plate and hit the homer on a 1-2 offering. After another walk and sub at the mount, Arauz hit another deep double. Another Phillips base hit scored the former and Brooks to grow the lead to 12-5. In the following home half-inning, once again after two outs, Phillips lost sight of a Johnson fly ball that fell to left field for a triple. An Ortiz grounder got a perfect bounce to get past third baseman Reyes-Cruz and score Johnson before a pop out to Ross, the shortstop, prevented more Vanguard points.

With another pitcher in the top of the sixth, Paulsen walked and Lara's flyball to center dropped for a single. At the ensuing top of the order, Anthony outdid himself with a three-run home run over the scoreboard to score Paulsen and Lara and bring Faulkner's total to 16 points. The Faulkner defense now stepped up by holding on for a 1-2-3 inning, via a Lara catch on a high flyout to the right foul pole and a Mathews grab in the first base foul area and pop out to second. Paulsen tallied a double down the left field line to score Phillips and Mathews in the top of the seventh. Anthony's deep sac fly scored Paulsen, gave the centerfielder his seventh RBI in his final home contest and made the score 18-6. In the bottom frame, Johnson hit a deep fly to left center that scored Buckson. The run marked the 21^st scored by Vanguard with two outs on the board over the last two days. Ortiz then hit a fly ball to center that made it appear that another run would be added, but Anthony made a desperation throw to home while falling down that Villa hauled in and tagged Johnson with before diving home, thus ending the inning.

Redshirt senior Stafford Quinnelly came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, and he began a successful double play to send it to the final inning. After singles by Mathews and Reyes-Cruz and a Paulsen hit-by-pitch, a wild pitch by reliever Elijah Weeks and an Anthony single scored pinch runners Ben Hargis and Alberto Lopez for the 19^th and 20th runs. Buckson added one final double homer in the bottom of the period to score himself and Landon Riker to make the final margin before Quinnelly struck out Conner to end the game.

The Faulkner seniors playing in their final game on campus and about to finish their careers at the World Series consisted of Anthony, Mathews, Villa, Lara, Phillips, Bo Seccombe, Paulsen, Quinnelly and Brooks. The only ones not playing Thursday were pitchers Antonio Frias and Mike Battle, who contributed on other days in the series.
No. 2 seed Faulkner now emerges victorious from an unusually stacked bracket that, counting the Eagles, included four teams in the national top 25 and three in the top 15, as well as a scrappy at-large selection in Freed-Hardeman. The next stop is Lewiston, with the Eagles' playing in the nightcap of opening day, May 28, against none other than tournament host Lewis-Clark State (Idaho).