MONTGOMERY, Ala. - A nine run fourth inning propelled Faulkner past No. 16 William Carey in the rubber match of the SSAC Baseball Series of the Week 10-4 to claim the 2-1 series win Friday afternoon at Harrison Field.
Trailing 3-1 with bases loaded in the top of the fourth,
Iroel Ruiz, who earned the save in game two, entered and coaxed a ground ball to second that
Jorge Lucero knocked down and stuck with to get Bailee Hendon out and prevent a run from scoring.Â
The momentum from that play spilled to the bats as
Cristian Martin led off the bottom half with a single to left. Three straight walks drove Martin in to cut the deficit to one.
Trevor Torppa's single to left score Lucero and
Jack Brinkley, who ran for catcher
Jose Vargas, to put the Eagles ahead 4-3. Kendall Reece delivered a pinch hit RBI single to score
Zakary Farris, cashing in all three free runners from the consecutive walks and putting the Eagles ahead by two.Â
Evan Gilliam hit a sacrifice fly ahead of Vargas hitting a three RBI double to left center to take a 9-3 lead. Lucero singled home one more to score the ninth run of the inning and take a 10-3 lead.Â
Ruiz was fantastic through the sixth inning but ran into early trouble in the seventh.
Hunter Dupuy picked up the torch and escaped a two-on, nobody out jam to keep it a seven run lead. Dupuy ran into trouble in the next inning after the first three batters reached on singles. Vargas's heads-up play behind the plate caught Jake Lycette too far away from first after a pitch and picked off the Crusader first baseman before Torppa threw across the diamond to catch Patrick Lee stealing on the back end of the throw and
Josh Smith and
Francisco Soriano played catch to retire the centerfielder. H
However, the Crusaders singled twice more before
Patrick McCarthy turned to
Nicholas Graham with two on and two outs in the eighth and the Canadian reliever got his ninth strikeout of the weekend in his 11th batter faced. Graham would work around a leadoff error to end the game and give the Eagles the series victory over William Carey for the fifth time in the last six seasons.Â
Faulkner improves to 20-17 overall and 10-8 in SSAC play.Â
The Eagles travel to Henderson, Tenn. to play a doubleheader with Freed-Hardeman Tuesday at 2 p.m.
