NEW ORLEANS - A pair of nail biters ended in a Saturday split with Faulkner (22-20, 11-10 SSAC) dropping the SSAC Series of the Week to Loyola (29-16, 14-7 SSAC) at Turchin Stadium.
FAULKNER 2, LOYOLA 0
Jorge Lucero's top of the sixth decisive two RBI single proved to be the only separating factor in game one of Saturday's twin bill. The second baseman's knock cashed in a leadoff single from
Cristian Martin followed by a
Francisco Soriano double to put the duo both in scoring position.
Jaxen Forrester (4-3) had one of his best performances on the hill earning the win striking out six over five-plus and allowing just two hits and two walks. A Wolf Pack runner reached third in both of the first two innings against the right-hander from Spanish Fort, Ala. but Forrester left them stranded there both times.
Nicholas Graham continued his excellent relief performances of recent, allowing just two hits and one walk over two innings of shutout pitching to earn the save.
Martin was the lone Eagle with multiple hits in the win, going 2-3 with the winning run scored.
LOYOLA 5, FAULKNER 4
In the rubber match of the series, untimely errors proved to be the difference in the series loss as the hosts answered every Faulkner run until the eighth inning. The Wolf Pack cashed in two unearned runs before their final run scored on a balk.
Faulkner jumped ahead in the third inning with a
Francisco Soriano single to score
Josh Smith who turned a leadoff single essentially into a triple, swiping second and third. However Loyola answered right back in the bottom half with a couple groundouts after runners reached second and third with no outs to take a 2-1 lead.
The Eagles squared the game back up in the sixth after Martin and
Jack Brinkley's singles sandwiched a Soriano walk for a
Jose Vargas sacrifice fly to score Martin. The tie was short lived though as a two out error turned into two Wolf Pack runs to take 4-2 lead.
Gilliam's one-out walk in the seventh proceeded a
Drew Mackie base hit before the duo pulled off the double steal to set up Martin for a sacrifice fly opportunity to score Gilliam and bring it back to one. The aforementioned balk put the hosts ahead by two once more, but a Smith sacrifice fly plated Lucero in the eighth to bring it back to a one run ball game.
Graham got the bats back in Faulkner's hands, stranding two in the eighth, but a one-two-three top of the ninth ended the game without the Eagles threatening extras. Combined with his earlier performance, the Canadian reliever has not allowed a run in his last four outings spanning 7.1 innings and has not allowed a run in eight full innings of work and has struck out nine in that time.
Soriano, Brinkley and Vargas each had multiple hits in the game.
The Eagles welcome No. 9 Mobile Thursday at 6 p.m. for the first game of the final series of the season.
