MT. VERNON, Ga. – It took a total of 18 innings and more than six hours, but Faulkner softball pulled off a road sweep of SSAC foe Brewton-Parker Friday.
FAULKNER 6, BREWTON-PARKER 5 (8 innings)
The Lady Eagles rallied from a late deficit in game one of the day to force extra innings and pull off the 6-5 victory in the eighth. The decisive swing of the contest came from the bat of
Colby Adams. The senior singled to right in the top of the eighth to drive in
Erika Mitchell, who opened the frame with a single of her own.
Ivey Hill (4-3) slammed the door in the bottom of the inning to polish off the victory.
Faulkner got the game tied in a wild seventh inning that included an overturned call to erase an apparent pickoff.
AnnaMarie Stooksbury coaxed a walk to open the inning and gave way to pinch runner
Jordan Boyd.
Eavie Polk followed with a single to right. After a pair of ground ball outs left the Lady Eagles down 5-3 with two outs in the seventh,
Anna Purvis came through with a single to plate both runners and even the score.
Brewton-Parker had taken the lead on two different occasions, scoring three runs in the third to go up 3-2 and two more in the fifth to lead 5-3.
The contest featured a lengthy rain delay that chased Faulkner starting pitcher
Julianna Thames and extended the total game time to three hours and 42 minutes. By that time, the Lady Eagles' early offensive success seemed a distant memory.
Mitchell got her team on the board in the first with a double to drive home
Chloe Davidson.
Gracie Pittman ripped a sacrifice fly to center in the third to drive in
Kaileigh Harrison. Faulkner added another in the run column on a Hill homer to right-center in the fourth.
Thames struck out one over two and two-thirds innings of work. Hill came on in relief, working five and a third innings while striking out three and allowing two earned runs.
FAULKNER 8, BREWTON-PARKER 6 (10 innings)
Faulkner took advantage of the tiebreaker rules to take game two of the series, getting two runs in the 10th inning to win 8-6. The go-ahead sequence saw Stooksbury placed on second to open the final frame. She gave way to Harrison as a pinch runner. The Marbury High alum quickly stole third before making it home on
Haley Ingram's RBI grounder to short.
Abby Terrell followed with a walk and made it in on Davidson's double to left. The freshman standout's insurance RBI proved her penultimate act of the game as she set the Barons down in order to drop the curtain in the bottom of the 10th.
Faulkner overcame a rocky start to get the win. The Lady Eagles trailed early after surrendering three runs in the first. The started the response in the top of the second when Ingram's RBI grounder drove in Mitchell to cut it to 3-1. Mitchell then helped the cause again in the third when she tripled in Pittman and Purvis to tie the game. Faulkner took its first lead when Mitchell touched home thanks to a Hill single.
BPC fired back in the home half of the third when it plated one to tie the game. Faulkner regained the lead in the fifth when Ingram singled in Mitchell to put the Lady Eagles up 5-4. The Barons answered again in the bottom of the inning to knot the game at five.
The score stayed there until the ninth when Hill singled in Purvis to make it 6-5. However, a pair of errors in the ninth aided the home team's cause, allowing Brewton-Parker to tie the game one last time.
Hill got the start in the circle, covering four innings and allowing four earned runs. Davidson (3-2) followed with six innings of relief work that saw her strike out two batters and allow no earned runs.
Faulkner (22-15, 10-10 SSAC) returns to action Saturday when it faces No. 11 Middle Georgia State at noon.
