MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Faulkner commanded game two of the SSAC weekend to earn the series win before battling back in a wild second game to complete the sweep of Blue Mountain Saturday at Harrison Field with an 11-4 and 14-13 extra innings win and take a three game lead over the rest of the conference with two weekends left.
FAULKNER 11, BLUE MOUNTAIN 4
Mose Hayes limited the damage and pitched out of some tough spots to hold the Toppers at bay as the bats scattered 12 hits to score 11 runs.
Orlando Lorduy launched a two-run homer in the first inning to score
Evan Gilliam from a leadoff single to take a 2-0 lead. Blue Mountain got an unearned run back in the second but a leadoff walk from
Francisco Soriano was cashed in on a
Wesley Estrella batted ball to get the run right back and lead 3-1 after two.
Soriano caused issues for the Toppers again in the bottom of the third as his bases loaded batted ball spun wickedly towards the pitcher who threw the ball away to end up scoring two runs on the play. Estrella singled in
Jorge Lucero and
Evan Gilliam plated
Jeremy Moore who ran for Soriano and then Lorduy knocked home Eduarny Martinez to add three runs in three at bats.
Arderrius Townsend did Arderrius Townsend things in the third to score two with a home run to left but Faulkner still led 8-3 going into the fifth. Hayes ran into a little trouble in the fifth and left bases loaded with two outs and Townsend back at the plate for
Hunter Dupuy who struck out one of the best bats in the country looking.
Juan Trinidad followed up by scoring Gilliam to make it 9-3.
Blue Mountain got one back in the sixth but Faulkner answered back with two more highlighted by a solo shot from Soriano to ice the game away.
Hayes earned the win allowing just two earned runs over 4.2 innings. Dupuy was effective over 1.1 innings of relief and
Henry Thornton closed the door in the seventh working around a walk to retire the other three batters faced.
Lorduy ended with three hits and three RBIs while Trinidad (two RBIs), Soriano and Martinez each had two hits.
FAULKNER 14, BLUE MOUNTAIN 13 (10 Inn.)
The third game of the series was simply chaos. The game featured a 20 minute rules argument, an eight run deficit deleted, a two out, two strike double to force extra innings and a walkoff for the third time in the last two weeks for the Eagles.
In a comfortable 3-3 game in the seventh inning, things went fully haywire when an umpire called a series of illegal pitches on Faulkner pitcher
Alexis Saldana for his delivery with nobody on base. The interpretation of the rule was argued until an umpire eventually went back to the locker room to get the rule book and the umpires discussed and ended up sticking by the ruling. Coming out of the chaos and a nearly 20 minute delay, Faulkner struggled to get the wheels back on and Blue Mountain punished the Eagles with five runs to take an 8-3 lead. The Eagles got two on in the bottom half but could not score. Townsend homered again in the eighth and Tyrese Roberson plated another run to put Faulkner down 11-3 going into the bottom of the eighth.
Johnny Lopez started the eighth with a single to left and it sparked an insane rally.
Christian Webb drew a walk and advanced Kendall Reece who ran for Lopez.
Darius Anderson became the courtesy runner for Webb.
Jorge Lucero drew a walk to load the bases and Soriano drew another to plate the first run with nobody out. A pitching change brought in a new arm for Blue Mountain and a wild pitch brought in a run but the pitcher was injured off a rushed throw to try to get the runner at the plate and another lengthy delay ensued taking care of the pitcher.
Zakary Farris hit a double down the right field line that initially looked like it was leaving the yard then looked like the right fielder Roberson was going to get there and make the out to only score one more, but it cut the deficit to five.
Wesley Estrella came up big again with a single to score two more and make it 11-8. After a Gilliam single and a Lorduy walk, bases were loaded again where
Tuane Cope drew a walk to score the ninth run. Gilliam scored on a wild pitch to make it 11-10 but Jesse Hancock, the fifth pitcher of the inning, found a way out without any further damage for the Toppers.
A sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth added a little bit of breathing room for the Toppers at 12-10, but Faulkner battled to the very last pitch. Soriano led off with a single and Estrella hit a one out single to put two on. With a 1-2 count and two outs, Lorduy launched a double into left center field to score both runs needed to force extras.
In extras, a BMCU leadoff single was erased from the paths as he tried to head to second after an errant throw to first was recovered by Estrella a long distance from the bag and threw an absolute dart to Lucero to beat the runner by a couple of steps and tag him out. The play turned out massive as Graham struck out Austin Garrison but he reached first on a wild pitch then scored off a Gavin Coles two-out triple down the right field line to once again take the lead.
Drew Mackie delivered a pinch hit single to lead off the 10th and
Christian Webb doubled down the left field line to put the winning run on second with nobody out. Webb made way for the courtesy runner Anderson at second. Lucero was seemingly hit with a full count pitch to load the bases but was called out for leaning into the pitch. Soriano drew a walk to load the bases for Eduarny Martinez who ripped a shot into the right centerfield gap to drive in Mackie to tie and Anderson to walk it off and sweep the series.
The dramatics in the game and the ending of the scoreline overshadowed two stellar starting performances and turned them into no decisions.
Tyberius Correa struck out seven over five and allowed just one earned for the Eagles while Matthew Koch got seven strikeouts over 135 pitches and really only got rocked in the eighth but was very steady and had a no hitter going into the fifth when Martinez's triple ended the bid. Saldana was very good for the Eagles until the chaos broke loose.
Nicholas Graham (8-3) got the second win of the series with 1.1 innings of work and three strikeouts.
The win coupled with the results around the league gives Faulkner (19-5 SSAC) a three game lead in the SSAC standings with just six games to go. The lead is increased by having the tiebreaker over both William Carey (16-8 SSAC) and Loyola (16-8 SSAC) with series wins earlier this year to essentially function as an additional half game lead. Faulkner has now won three extra innings games in the seven game win streak.
The Eagles travel to Huntsville Tuesday to take on D1 Alabama A&M.
