MONTGOMERY, Ala. – It was a long day of baseball on day two of the SSAC Championship presented by Newk's Eatery in Montgomery Thursday. The Bethel Wildcats and the Faulkner were scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. but the game did not begin until 10:05 p.m. The No. 4 seeded Wildcats fell to the No. 4 ranked and top seeded Faulkner 6- 1.
Lucas Riddick was hit by a pitch in the second, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by the Eagles. He scored on a ground out by Juan Torres and the Wildcats took a 1-0 lead.
After a walk and two hits the Eagles loaded the bases in the fifth. They scored on a sacrifice fly by John Michael Matthews to tie the game and then took a 2-1 lead on a RBI double by Jonathan Villa.
Faulkner's Hagen Holmstead delivered a two-run RBI single in the eighth to give the Eagles a 4-1 lead. Jacob Freeland then singled in a run to up the Eagle margin to 5-1. Antonio Costas surrendered the runs and was relieved by Billy Price with two runners on base and just one out. Price was able to hold the Eagles at bay and keep the Wildcats within striking distance.
John Michael Matthews led the ninth off with a long home run to left to give the Eagles a 6-1 lead.
Faulkner outhit the Wildcats 8-5.
Trevor Bishop pitched well allowing just four hits in seven innings but was charged with the loss. Faulkner ace Evan Gillespie picked up the Eagle win.
The Wildcats fell to 29-19 and will meet Brewton-Parker Friday at 1 p.m. BPU beat Blue Mountain earlier in the day 8-6. Faulkner (44-10) will face the winner of that game Friday night at 7 p.m. The Wildcats lost two of three game versus BPU in late March in Mount Vernon.
Visit the SSAC Championship page at:
http://www.ssacsports.com/2019-ssac-baseball-championship
