MONTGOMERY, Ala. – In serious danger of dropping its opening weekend series at Harrison Field on Sunday, the Faulkner bats got going, a pitching change was enough to frustrate Clarke and the Eagles ran away with a 15-7 win in an epic turnaround game.

All of Faulkner's runs came in a span of three innings in the middle of the contest, eight of which were scored via grand slams by Evan Gilliam and Justice Lucas; nine of the 15 were earned and all were scored with two outs on the board or on the same play as Clarke was gaining the second. Eight of the Eagles' nine starters claimed a hit, and the one who did not, left fielder Kevin Saenz, a transfer from Oklahoma Baptist, made his mark on the defensive side, including catching a fly out against the wall in the fourth. The two pinch hitters also got on base, one via hit and one via base on balls. Gilliam, one of three Eagle signees from Dyersburg State Community College this offseason, was indispensable with two hits, three runs and five runs batted in in four at-bats, and created plenty of defensive highlights along with Saenz. Lucas claimed two runs, two hits and four RBIs, along with getting walked twice, in just three trips to the batter's box. Catcher Alex Arauz got three hits in five chances, and Peyton Davis, a grad transfer from NCAA D1 Northwestern State, was 2-for-3 with three runs scored. Bubba Thompson and Greg Bennett were responsible for all five of Clarke's RBIs.

Trailing 6-0 after two innings, Ford Hilyer was sent to the mound in place of the struggling Tyberius Correa. The visiting Pride were then held scoreless until the final frame and the hosts turned it on in the fourth with two outs remaining, in what would become a theme, to exceed Clarke's total and give Hilyer his first win since tallying three last April against Stillman, Martin Methodist and Point. The fourth-year sophomore allowed just two hits and struck out three batters in five innings of work with 16 batters faced. Johnny Blake took the loss for Clarke, despite registering four strikeouts, three looking. This was before Faulkner's offensive explosion, in which time he allowed six hits, seven runs with only one earned, walking one hitter and plunking two others, all in 18 at-bats. He was the first of six Pride hurlers sent to the mound.

The first base runners of the game, Thompson and Bryce Simon, got on thanks to a Correa fielding error and a walk. After a Hayden Seibers single loaded the bases, Gilliam made the throw off the Bennett single to left center for an 8-6-5 putout of Seibers by Juan Trinidad at third base to end the top of the first, but not before Thompson and Simon made it home on the play for the early 2-0 lead. After a three-up-three-down bottom frame, the next two Clarke runners got on board thanks to a hit-by-pitch and another Correa walk. Darius Bradley's single to left advanced Kevin Javier to third, and the latter scored due to Saenz's error on the play. Thompson promptly stepped up and delivered a three-run blast to put his team up by six. With another walk among the last three at-bats of the top of the second, the Eagles' coaching staff reached into the bullpen and called it a day for Correa.

Hilyer provided an immediate boost, delivering a strikeout in each of the next two frames, including a three-up-three-down of his own in the fourth. With one out left until finishing with another fruitless inning, Davis hit a double to left field, his first as an Eagle, to score Lucas, Faulkner's only earned run of the pivotal stretch, and put his team on the board. Davis would get home off a Trinidad hit that turned into consecutive errors by the shortstop. After a Jordan Funk single and Blake's first walk of the game loaded the bases, Gilliam launched his grand slam to improbably tie the game 6-6. The Pride were clearly rattled by the turn of the tables, and Blake hit Shawn Ross with a pitch before a new pitcher, Bailin Markridge, gave up a walk and a wild pitch that advanced the runners to second and third. An Arauz single, which was originally ruled out before the officials converged and ruled that the first baseman had come off the bag to make the catch, ended up scoring Ross to put his team ahead to stay.

In the top of the fifth, Arauz made two almost identical throws from home to second baseman Sammy De La Cruz to catch consecutive pinch runners stealing and put Clarke behind the 8-ball once again. A fly out to right gave the ball back to Faulkner.  After a Funk single, De La Cruz's sac bunt scored Davis, the home team's second of the inning to advance the designated hitter out of Louisiana. Davis had been walked on four pitches by another fresh arm at the mound. Following a hit-by-pitch and walk that loaded the bases once again, Lucas did as Lucas does, firing the homer to get all four and a 12-6 lead for his team.

The sixth frame's top half was ended soon after it began, starting with a highlight grab by Gilliam to rob the visitors of a would-be double. Hilyer's third punch-out and a fly out to Saenz in left field sent the inning to its bottom on just three at-bats. Singles by Davis, Trinidad and De La Cruz, sandwiched around a strikeout by Clarke's Tayden Patterson, loaded it up once more, before Gilliam reached first base on a 6-4 fielder's choice that scored Davis and gave them the all-important second out. The three runs of the inning came on consecutive pitches. Trinidad, now at third base, scored on a wild pitch and Gilliam, already attempting to steal second, made it all the way to third in the sequence. Gilliam then was led home by the umpire on an unconventional fielding error, when it was ruled that the catcher used his mask to complete the catch on a would-be ball. Hilyer led one more three-up-three-down in the seventh before Hunter Dupuy finished the job in the final two.

No. 6 Faulkner now enters a tough test on the other side of the one this weekend. The team will go on the road to Waleska, Ga., on February 10 to take on No. 21 Reinhardt in the first game of the NAIA Southeast Rumble, an event that was on the schedule last year but was cancelled due to COVID-19. The Eagles will then make the short trip to Lakepoint, Ga., where they will continue the tournament against No. 17 St. Thomas, who Faulkner last faced in last season's NAIA Tournament Opening Round in Montgomery, and Columbia International. Their next series at home is February 18-19 against receiving votes Webber International.