HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Eagles dropped a 4-2 decision against national No. 9 Mobile Wednesday afternoon in Hattiesburg to start the SSAC Baseball Championship and will have to battle out of the loser's bracket to stake a claim to a national tournament bid.
The Eagles fell behind with a pair of Ram runs in the third before the No. 3 seed added to its lead in the fourth and fifth to make it 4-0.
Jose Vargas led off with a single to center ahead of courtesy runner
Kendall Reese coming in to score the first run for Faulkner in the sixth from a
Jorge Lucero double. The next at bat,
Francisco Soriano singled home Lucero to cut it to a two run game.
Despite the low score, there were opportunities aplenty for the two teams who combined to strand 20 runners with Faulkner leaving nine.
The Eagles called on six pitchers to get them through the opener with
Hunter Dupuy turning in strikeouts for all four outs he recorded. The Eagles did not allow a Mobile hit in the last five innings of the game.
Faulkner plays for its season Thursday morning at 10 a.m. against Brewton-Parker. With a win, the Eagles would face the loser of Mobile and Talladega Friday at 10 a.m. as well.
