LEWISON, Idaho –
July Sosa carried a no-hitter through six and two-thirds innings as Faulkner dropped Webber International 7-2 Saturday in the Avista NAIA Word Series. The contest, which served as the fourth meeting of the season between the teams, started at 10 a.m. Pacific Time after inclement weather forced its postponement Friday.
After Faulkner left the bases loaded in the first inning, it manufactured three runs in the bottom of the second to take control of the game.
Kevin Saenz and
Jordan Funk opened the inning with singles before a throwing error on a
Jack Brinkley bunt allowed the first run of the contest.
Sammy De La Cruz followed with sacrifice fly to right to plate Funk for the 2-0 advantage.
Juan Trinidad followed with a flyball to center to score Brinkley for the 3-0 advantage.
The lead was never threatened as Sosa proved dominant for much of the late morning contest. A
Justice Lucas homer in the third moved the advantage to 4-0 as Sosa continued to set down one Warrior after another.
The Eagles kept the pressure on in the fourth as De La Cruz doubled home Brinkley. Trinidad added a single to center to plate the Faulkner second baseman for the 6-0 lead.
With one out in the fifth, Sosa hit a Webber batter, snapping a string of 13 straight batters retired to open the game. He quickly retired the next two before notching a 1-2-3 sixth. With two out in the seventh, Tyren Milliner singled up the middle for the first WIU hit of the day. Sosa then retired the next batter to nullify any potential threat and get his team back to the plate.
Lucas opened the bottom of the seventh with a single and gave way to pinch runner
Ben Hargis. A
Tommy Reyes-Cruz single advanced the runner to second before a Funk grounder advanced him to third. A subsequent wild pitch allowed him to score, making it 7-0.
Webber finally got to Sosa in the ninth as Gabriel Dorsey walked to start the inning before Drake Dobyanski homered to cut it to 7-2. A pair of singles from Luis Acevedo and Milliner gave the Warriors a fleeting hope before Sosa slammed the door with a pair of flyball outs.
Sosa (12-1) struck out 12 batters over a nine-inning complete game effort while allowing four hits and two earned runs.
The win came 98 days after Faulkner lost to Webber International 6-1 at Harrison Field in Montgomery, capping a three-game sweep by the Warriors that dropped the Eagles to 2-7 on the season. The result served as a 2022 pivotal point for Faulkner, which won 12 of its next 14 games, the most recent reminder of the turnaround coming Saturday with the Eagles going over 7-2 against the same squad that dropped it to 2-7.
Faulkner (38-15) plays again Saturday evening at 4 p.m. Pacific Time against Tennessee Wesleyan.
