TIFTON, Ga. - Faulkner (20-13, 9-6 SSAC) dropped both ends of the doubleheader to lose the SSAC Series of the Week on the road at Abraham Baldwin (25-11, 10-5 SSAC) Saturday with missed opportunities throughout; the Eagles stranded 20 runners on the day. However, with results around the league, Faulkner still just sits just one game behind first place in a very logjammed standings that sees just two games separating first (10-5) and seventh (8-7).
ABAC 4, Faulkner 3
The Eagles suffered a walkoff walk to end a wild seven inning contest to start the doubleheader. ABAC got on the board first with a three spot in the second. The Eagles got one back in the third when Dariel Colón broke for second and coaxed a throw that
Jordan Carter came home on the delayed double steal.
In the sixth, the Eagles continued the comeback when
Anthony Bassett Torres hit a triple to score
Tevin Landrum who ran for
Carter Schellsmidt following his leadoff single.
Shaun Bridges put down a squeeze bunt and Bassett was able to get through the tag as the catcher could not hold onto the ball to score the tying run. After a sacrifice bunt from
Alex Gonzalez put runners on second and third, Colón rolled to short who made a great throw to beat
CJ Robertson to the plate for the second out. Edrien Martínez followed with a hit to left field where Arellano tried to get home from second, but was unsuccessful as a great throw beat him from taking the lead. The Eagles asked about potential obstruction on the play, but the ruling on the field was upheld by the umpire.
Ramses Guerra completed his day with an efficient sixth inning, going three up, three down to get the bats back to the Eagles. Guerra scattered five hits and allowed just one earned run over 92 pitches in the six inning no decision.
Faulkner's bats went quietly through the seventh, and gave the Stallions a walkoff chance in a tie game. After a leadoff walk and sac bunt, Faulkner intentionally walked the Stallions leadoff man Quinten Rawls before a single loaded the bases where Dylan Davis drew a bases loaded walk that narrowly missed the zone on a full count.
The game saw
Jeyson Polanco's 19 game on base streak come to an end.
ABAC 10, Faulkner 6
Faulkner saw a lot of missed opportunities early on, with the Eagles stranding 11 runners in the first seven innings. In the first two innings, Faulkner had the bases loaded twice but could not drive in a run to support the two early runs driven in by Carter's double and Polanco's sacrifice fly in the first.
The Stallions got one in the bottom of the first and four in the second to take a 5-2 lead.
Faulkner fought back in the fourth as
Seth Copeland drew a walk and Colón singled and Martínez singled to load the bases for Carter who singled in the courtesy runner Landrum. Bassett hit another single to score Colón before Arellano drove home Martínez to tie it.
An error and hit by pitch came around to score for ABAC in the fifth on a Rawls double to take a 7-5 home lead.
Jordan Carter scored in the sixth on a Bassett RBI to cut the deficit to one. In the seventh, Faulkner had a runner at third with two outs but could not bring him home to tie it.
Avery Shelton worked a quick seventh to get the Eagles another chance, but Faulkner stranded two more in the eighth. In the bottom half, ABAC scored three times to put the game out of reach and clinch the series.
Having just passed the halfway mark in SSAC play, the top seven are separated by just two games with a three-way tie for first between ABAC, William Carey and Loyola with a three-way tie for fourth between Faulkner, Thomas and UT Southern. Mobile sits in seventh with a three game cushion from eighth where Blue Mountain currently occupies the last spot in the SSAC Championship by two games over ninth place Brewton-Parker.
Faulkner travels to Bryan for a nonconference midweek contest on Tuesday before welcoming Thomas for a pivotal three game set around the Resurrection Sunday weekend at Harrison Field.
