MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The Eagles picked up a big win against Blue Mountain at Harrison Field off the back of a couple of big offensive innings to improve their position atop the SSAC standings to two games over William Carey and three over Loyola who each took losses in Friday conference action.
No. 11 Faulkner (28-10, 17-5 SSAC) fell behind early off a solo home run from Blue Mountain (24-15, 9-13 SSAC) right fielder Tyrese Roberson, but a big third inning flipped the game in favor of the hosts.
Francisco Soriano singled up the middle and eventually got to third following an
Evan Gilliam walk and an
Orlando Lorduy single.
Juan Trinidad's sac fly tied the game before
Johnny Lopez ripped a base knock down the third base line to drive in Gilliam and Lorduy and take a 3-1 lead.
Roberson homered with bases empty again in the fifth to cut the lead to 3-2.
Nicholas Graham entered the game in a very tough spot with a 2-0 count and the go ahead run on second after
Marco Ozuna had to exit the game, but the reigning SSAC Pitcher of the Week battled back from a 3-1 count to strike out Josiah Rivera and end the inning.
Wesley Estrella led off the seventh with a single before a pair of pitching mistakes got him to third where Gilliam's sacrifice fly got Faulkner back up multiple runs. Three singles later,
Johnny Lopez drove in Lorduy to make it 5-2.
Christian Webb's single scored Trinidad and Eduarny Martinez drove in
Darius Anderson who was running for
Johnny Lopez to make it 7-2.
A pair of eighth inning home runs and a double brought the tying run on deck for the Toppers with just one out.
Jordan Destefano entered from the bullpen and got a pair of strikeouts around a walk and a trio of stolen bases to limit the damage to just one and get out with a 7-5 lead. Faulkner added two more in the bottom half of the eighth to add space, cashing in on a pair of unearned runs to take a 9-5 lead into the final frame where Destefano coaxed a three-up, three-down inning to earn his fifth save and hold up Graham's seventh win of the season in 10 decisions. The Faulkner pitching staff struckout 14 batters to just three walks while the bats only went down three times and drew four walks.
Lorduy ended with three hits and Lopez and Soriano two each.
The Eagles now lead by two games over William Carey and hold the tiebreaker over the Crusaders with eight games to play after the Crusaders were run-ruled at Mobile Friday night. Loyola lost both of the doubleheader at Brewton-Parker to fall to three games back with seven to go, again with Faulkner holding the break. The Eagles now have a magic number of six over William Carey for at least a share of the league title and the top seed, seven would earn it outright.
The Eagles play two more Saturday against the Toppers, trying to win its eighth SSAC series of the year in eight tries. First pitch is at 1 p.m.
