MILLINGTON, Tenn. - Opening day saw a five run outburst in the second inning of the second game of the day push the Eagles to a 1-1 afternoon, falling in the season opener 7-2 to Missouri Baptist before claiming a 5-4 win over Culver-Stockton Saturday afternoon at the USA Baseball Complex.
MISSOURI BAPTIST 7, FAULKNER 2
Tied at one in the top of the fourth inning with two outs and two on for the Spartans,
J.C. Toro was facing a 3-0 count. A ball was controversially added to the count for delay of game to load the bases. The following at bat, Arturo Brito laced a ball off the left field fence to clear the bases with a stand-up double and put Missouri Baptist ahead 4-1, and it was plenty as the Faulkner offense struggled to get the bats going in the frigid first game of the season.
Faulkner got its first hit of the season as leadoff man
Evan Gilliam found a hit to right field. After an error by the right fielder off the bat of
Drew Mackie,
Cristian Martin drove in Gilliam with a grounder to short to tie the game.
In the fourth,
Francisco Soriano led off the home half with a triple to right but could not be brought home. Faulkner scratched a run back in the fifth with a sacrifice fly from
Jose Vargas to plate Gilliam once more. The Spartans added three insurance runs in the seventh to put the game out of reach.
Faulkner found just four hits on 25 at bats but drew six walks in the process.
Toro was solid and had a much better outing than the numbers may suggest, striking out six over four while all four runs scored being charged to the starter.
Nicholas Graham was good in relief working back-to-back three-up, three-down innings in the fifth and sixth before a tough seventh.
FAULKNER 5, CULVER-STOCKTON 4
Five hits marked a frantic second inning for the Eagles that would be enough to give them their first win of the season as a clutch closing performance from
Chance Denson shut the door.
Catcher
C.J. Keckler's leadoff single in the second got the train rolling as
Juan Trinidad followed up with a bunt single to push courtesy runner
Josh Smith to second.
Jorge Lucero drew a walk to load the bases before Gilliam plated two with a single to left. Mackie followed with a two RBI double to left center to score Gilliam for the third time on the day and
Trevor Torppa who reached on a fielder's choice. Martin had his second RBI of the day to clear the bases. Soriano hit his second triple of the day with two outs but again could not get the help needed to finish the trip around the bases.
After retiring the first eight batters,
Alexis Saldana surrendered the first hit of the evening and a throwing error on the next at bat would cash it in, but the third strikeout of the Panamanian pitcher's outing would end the inning. He ended the day with four innings of one-hit pitching en route to the win.
A quick two-up, two-down for
Hunter Dupuy turned quickly on its head after a pair of singles from the Wildcats led into a three run home run from Jordan Scott to cut the Faulkner lead to 5-4. Dupuy responded well with his second strikeout of the inning.
Faulkner could not widen the margin any, but did not need to behind a great two inning save from
Chance Denson who worked around a two out walk in the sixth and a two out double in the seventh to earn his first save as an Eagle with a pair of punchouts.
The Eagles are back in action for the second day of the Saluki Invitational Sunday with a noon tilt against former SSAC foe Bethel at noon and a 2:30 meeting with Marian (Ind.) at the stadium field that once housed the USA national team.
