MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The Eagles (24-20, 11-11 SSAC) bounced back with a vintage Faulkner performance Friday night in a 10-4 win over Mobile at Mike Jacobs Field in SSAC play with Edrien Martínez driving in
Jordan Carter three different times to take the lead in a back-and-forth contest, backed by great pitching.
Ramses Guerra, who started his first opening game of a series Friday night, bounced back from a rough outing last week with three earned runs over six innings against a Mobile team that had scored nine runs at least in their last five games. Over those six innings, Edrien Martínez continued to stake his case for the SSAC Player of the Year, starting with his first inning homer to make it 2-0. It was his conference leading 15th home run of the season and the seventh different SSAC series he has hit a home run in this year.
Mobile scored twice in the fourth, but Martínez scored
Jordan Carter for the second time in the day with a fifth inning single to reclaim the lead after Carter reached on an error and got to third on a sacrifice bunt from
CJ Robertson. Martínez would come around to score on a three base throwing error off a pickoff attempt to make it 4-2.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Rams retied the game taking advantage of an error for the tying run. In the seventh, the same combo did it again with a single from Carter and two stolen bases for the centerfielder around a Robertson hit by pitch to put runners on second and third. The third baseman got his fourth hit of the day to score the centerfielder for the third time.
Anthony Bassett Torres was hit with a pitch with bases loaded before a walk drawn by
Orlando Arellano plated the seventh run of the night and lead by three.
After a three-up, three-down bottom half from
Avery Shelton, a two out error in the top of the eight started an unraveling from the Mobile pitching staff. Two straight walks and a wild pitch scored
Marlon Oviedo before a single from
Carter Schellsmidt scored
Jeyson Polanco and Martínez on a single to make it 10-4.
Shelton got three quick outs on four batters faced in the bottom eighth before
Collin Rittenberry closed it out in the ninth with a strikeout and assisted on a groundout around a caught stealing by Schellsmidt and Bassett.
Martínez finished 4-4 with four RBIs and four runs scored. Carter was 2-6 with three runs scored and a pair of stolen bases. Schellsmidt tallied two hits on five at-bats with two RBIs.
The Eagles still sit seventh in the SSAC but with the chaos in the league currently can make some moves up with the five games left, just two games behind fourth and four games behind first.
Faulkner sits two back of Mobile and will play the Rams twice Saturday at Mike Jacobs Field to wrap the series.
