TIFTON, Ga. - The bats were rolling as the Eagles (20-11, 9-4 SSAC) scattered 15 hits to take game one from No. 24 Abraham Baldwin (23-11, 8-5 SSAC) Friday night to prop up another impressive start from
Brandon Napier in the Southern States Athletic Conference Series of the Week between two teams that entered tied for second in one of the NAIA's toughest conferences.
The SSAC leader in batting average, Dariel Colón, wasted no time improving his numbers, singling to start the game before going first to third on a single from
Jordan Carter.
Jimmy Perez drove the left fielder home to put Faulkner up 1-0 in the first. However, ABAC responded well in the home half with a leadoff double from Quinten Rawls who was brought home two batters later before a two run homer from Cameron Campbell put the Stallions in the lead.
After a scoreless second, Edrien Martínez and
Jordan Carter hit back-to-back home runs to tie the game on a total of just four pitches. Chasin Cash put the Stallions back in the lead in the home half of the third, but Martínez went yard again for his 10th home run of the year to tie it at 4-4; the third baseman has gone long in every conference series so far this season and has a 1.472 OPS with 18 RBIs in the 13 games thus far. Carter, Perez and
Carter Schellsmidt linked singles together to take the lead off the backstop's single. Faulkner would not trail again after Schellsmidt fouled off three pitches to stay alive in the at bat.
Anthony Bassett Torres drove home
Tevin Landrum in the sixth to make a Stallion error come back to hurt. In the seventh, two more unearned runs came in for Faulkner off a batted ball from
Jordan Carter.
In the eighth inning,
Alex Gonzalez called game with a three run blast to take an 11-4 lead.
Brandon Napier entered the eighth and got two outs before
Mat Mayer relieved him. Napier allowed just one run after the first inning, throwing 112 pitches and fanning five. The Arizonan has won his last three outings and improved to 4-1 on the season with a 2.95 ERA.
Mayer was able to get the groundball to get out of the inning. After an uneventful top of the ninth,
Caden White got two quick outs against the Stallions but down to the last gasp, the hosts kept fighting. The next four batters got on to put two runs on before
Bracken Rice got a strikeout to end the game.
Martínez extended his hit streak to 10 games. Carter and Colón extended their on base streak to nine contests. Six different Eagles had multiple hits led by the centerfielder's three. Eight different Eagles collected at least one hit with a total of 10 different Eagles, including
Jeyson Polanco who returned to the lineup for the first time in three weeks, and extended his on base streak that has included all 19 appearances this season for the Dominican.
The win marked the third time this season, all in SSAC play, that Faulkner recorded 15 or more hits.
Faulkner goes for the series win tomorrow with a doubleheader against ABAC scheduled for a noon first pitch central time.
