MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Faulkner Baseball has seen two Eagles climb through the minor league baseball ranks and wind up on the doorstep of The Show with Alex Carrillo and Shawn Ross both being promoted to AAA this month.

For Carrillo, the rise has been a long time coming, but not surprising to anyone who knows him and his talent. As an Eagle, Carrillo posted a 3.79 ERA over 99.2 innings in his two seasons in the Gump with 101 strikeouts to just 35 walks and a .259 batting average against, earning first team All-SSAC honors in 2018. The native of West Covina, California started his professional career in 2019 starting tin the Northwoods League playing for the St. Cloud Rox before signing with the Texas Rangers. Carrillo saw three appearances with the Arizona League side in rookie ball where he saw great success in limited outcomes with six strikeouts over 4.1 innings of work. 

After COVID, Carrillo joined the Frontier League with the New York Boulders before heading to Mexico and pitching two seasons for Quintana Roo from 2022-2023. He returned Stateside for baseball in 2024, pitching for the Washington WildThings in the Frontier League and posting a 3.38 ERA over 17 appearances. His stellar performance with the WildThings earned him a shot with the Venezuelan Winter League pitching for Tigres de Aragua and continuing his torrid form posting a 3.38 ERA and a 4-1 record.

Following the Winter League success, Carrillo earned another call from affiliated baseball, inking a contract with the New York Mets where he started the 2025 season in AA with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies where he posted a 4.19 ERA over 15 appearances with a 2-1 record, earning a call up to the Syracuse Mets on June 24.

That day, Carrillo entered a 5-4 ball game with bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the 7th on the road at the Rochester Red Wings. Carrillo struck out two and forced a popup to keep the Mets within one and was thanked with eight runs in the top of the eighth before creating a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the eighth to wrap up his first AAA outing, facing six, allowing no base runners, and picking up the win. 

Shawn Ross had a shorter run to AAA following his decorated Faulkner career where he was named the 2022 SSAC Player of the Year. Ross hit 36 home runs in 129 games with a .314 average and .619 slugging with a .447 on base over his three seasons with the Eagles.

Ross, after hitting 18 home runs in 2022 for Faulkner, signed with the Grand Junction Rockies and just continued punishing baseballs, hitting 24 home runs and 24 doubles in 81 games in independent ball before competing in the Puerto Rican Winter League with RA12. Ross earned a shot with the Pirates organization and was assigned to High-A Greensboro with the Grasshoppers where Ross started catching. Over his two seasons with the Grasshoppers, he hit 37 home runs and 17 more extra base hits while driving in 91 over 147 games, earning him a shot in AA to start the 2025 season with the Altoona Curve. Ross continued to impress, especially with his glove with a .996 ERA and earned a quick stint in AAA in April where he hit a walk off single for the Indianapolis Indians before returning to AA a couple of days later. 

On June 8, the phone rang again for Ross calling him back to Indianapolis. Over his two stints in AAA, Ross carries a .421 BABIP with a home run and two doubles over nine hits.  

The two Eagles look to join an elite list of two Faulkner Hall of Famers in Shane Reynolds (1992-2004) and Austin Adams (2014-2019) to make the Majors.