HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Faulkner saw a 2-1 lead vanish in the fifth as a six run inning for the Crusaders gave enough cushion for William Carey to cruise to a 10-3 win to open the SSAC Series of the Week.
Cam Senior made Taylor Walters's one-out double count with a single to score the opening run for WIlliam Carey in the second.
In the fourth, Edrien Martínez got one back of a solo shot to left with one out before
Jimmy Perez found a two out single and got to second on a wild pitch.
CJ Robertson put the Eagles in the lead with a single to right.
In the sixth, things unraveled quickly as five free passes and four hits turned into six runs and three pitchers trying to get out of the inning.
Faulkner went down on three straight strikeouts in the top of the sixth and William Carey scored two more in the bottom half to put the game out of reach.
Caden Whatley wiggled out of trouble a couple of times to limit the damage to just two runs across eight runners, covering three innings of work with 73 pitches.
Orlando Arellano collected two hits.
Faulkner was outhit 13-6 while walking 10 batters and hit two more.
The Eagles look to get back on track in the doubleheader Saturday afternoon starting at 1 p.m.
