Early lead not enough as Pride fall to No. 6 Faulkner 15-7

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - In the rubber game of their season-opening three game series, the Clarke University baseball team fell to No. 6 Faulkner University 15-7 on Sunday afternoon.

The Pride jumped out to an early 2-0 then 6-0 lead in the first and second innings as Greg Bennett produced a two-out, two-RBI single in the first then Darius Bradley knocked in a run in the second.

Bubba Thompson was the next batter after Bradley as he launched a three-run home run to dead center fied to put CU up 6-0 in the second inning.

Starting pitcher Johnny Blake had a strong first three innings but the second time through the order proved to be tough for the sophomore from Dubuque as he allowed seven runs in the fourth, only one earned, as the big blow came on a grand slam from Evan Gilliam that tied the game at 6-6.

A tough call extended the inning and allowed the go-ahead run to score at the time as the final out was called on a nice scoop at first from Bryce Hinton but the umpires got together and overturned the call to say Hinton's foot was off the bag as a run would score on the play to make it 7-6 at the time.

The Eagles would add another grand slam in the fifth inning from Justyce Lucas as Faulkner added five in the fifth inning to pull ahead 12-6, then they added three more in the sixth to get to their final run total of 16.

Clarke added a run in the ninth following two shutout innings from Nolan Lamere on the mound as Lamere struck out four Eagle batters and only allowed two hits in his two innings.

Pride baseball will return to action next on Friday and Saturday when they travel to Joplin, Mo. for a four-game series against Northwestern College.