Posted by
Doug Amos
-
Sat, Apr 26, 2008
- [
Baseball
] - Viewed 188 times
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Southern Wesleyan jumped on Faulkner starter Jeff Baldwin for six runs in the top of the first inning and never looked back Saturday afternoon, advancing to Saturday night's semifinal round of the Southern States Athletic Conference tournament with a convincing 15-8 victory over the Eagles.
The Warriors, 35-20, will play Lee for the right to face Auburn Montgomery Sunday afternoon at 1 for the tournament title. The Eagles end their season at 35-22.
Southern Wesleyan's six-run explosion included only two hits. Faulkner starter Jeff Baldwin walked three and hit three batters in only two-thirds of an inning of work. Kody Hightower had a two-run single and Davey Blackburn an RBI single as well in the inning.
The lead grew to 8-0 in the second before Faulkner battled back. Brandon Reed hit a three-run homer and Kevin Leslie added a two-run shot in a five-run second to cut the margin to 8-5. The Flames added three more in the third, however, to push the lead back to six and were never threatened again.
Warrior starter Matt Cape went the distance, scattering 14 hits, to improve to 6-1.
Hightower and Kellen Kmiecik had three hits apiece for Southern Wesleyan, which got two hits each from Blackburn, Drew Sherwood and Brandon Brown. Faulkner's Michael Colley had four hits in the game, while Leslie, Reed, Austin Adams and T.J. Santos added two apiece. One of Adams hits was a solo home run.