Posted by Doug Amos - Fri, Apr 25, 2008 - [ Baseball ] - Viewed 244 times
     MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Faulkner's Winston Stone looped a two-out, two-run single to left that ignited a seven-run sixth inning as the fifth-seeded Eagles shocked No. 3 and regular season champion Lee 13-7 Thursday night to stay unbeaten in the Southern States Athletic Conference baseball tournament.
     Faulkner's victory sends it into Friday night's winners' bracket game with cross-town rival Auburn Montgomery at 7. Lee faces Reinhardt in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Friday.
     The game was tied at 6 when Stone, who had three RBIs on the night, fisted the first pitch from Flame reliever Jeff Ibarra just past the reach of third baseman Josh Guy, plating the go-ahead runs. Two hits and two wild pitches later and the Eagles had broken the game open. Faulkner sent 11 men to the plate in the seven-run outburst which included five hits, four of which were run-scoring singles.
     "It was a huge bottom of the sixth for our guys, with Winston Stone's the biggest,'' Faulkner head coach Brent Barker said. "He didn't hit it hard, but he hit it where they weren't. Then we got some hard-hit balls after that. And I thought Jeff Baldwin, our final reliever, did a good job getting some outs so we could save our closer for later in the tournament.''
     Faulkner scored twice in the first and added three more in the second to build a 5-1 lead, and still lead 6-3 heading to the top of the sixth. Back-to-back doubles by Lee's Jeremy Hutslar and Clint Harrelson cut the lead to 6-4 and chased Faulkner starter Ryan Chase. After coaxing a deep fly ball for the inning's second out, Faulkner reliever Jordan Cowart hung a curve ball to Flame rightfielder Kevin Wyman, who sent it well over the leftfield wall to deadlock the game at 6.
     In the decisive sixth, Lee used three pitchers, who hit two Faulkner batters and walked another in the uprising. The Flames added a single run in the eighth to close out the scoring.
     Faulkner collected 13 hits in the game, with every player in the lineup having at least one. Kevin Leslie, Austin Adams and Michael Colley had two hits apiece. Leslie and Stone each had three RBIs, while Topher Blanchette added two. Lee had 10 hits against three Faulkner pitchers.