Eagles Hold Off Faulkner to Win Game One of SouthEast Rumble

David Finney | photo by Severin Ryf

Waleska, GA - On a perfect day in February for baseball, the Reinhardt Eagles hosted the Southeast Rumble at Ken White Baseball Field and LakePoint Sports Complex in Cartersville. The Eagles welcomed in Tennessee Wesleyan, St. Thomas, and Faulkner for Day One of the tourney. Tomorrow, Columbia International, Taylor, Middle Georgia State, and Indiana Tech will make their appearance for all-day baseball both Friday and Saturday.

Reinhardt opened up with Faulkner in the second game of the day on Thursday. The Eagles' ace, Pablo Barquero, was on the mound for game one. Barquero was looking to pick up his second win of the year against the Eagles of Faulkner, however, the first inning would start off a little shaky as Barquero tried to find his groove. Faulkner was able to get 2 runs in the inning off of 2 hits - one a double.  Reinhardt would get the lead right back in the bottom of the first as Jacob Profit led off with a single to center. Dawson Johns and Tucker Zdunich followed with singles of their own to load up the bases.  Jarrett Burney would double on Faulkner's pitcher sending in all three runs getting the lead, 3-2.

Barquero would hold Faulkner scoreless over the second through the fourth innings as he settled in on the game. In the bottom of the second, Reinhardt would get a double from Lance Dockery and he would eventually score off a single from Profit to center field. In the bottom of the third, Zdunich would score again after Dockery was hit by a pitch. After three, the Eagles would lead Faulkner, 4-2.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Eagles would get rolling again to add three more runs. Patrick Baggett and Dawson Johns both singled to start the fourth and Tucker Zdunich was hit by a pitch. Burney was able to get Baggett home on a fielder's choice. This was followed by another pair of singles by Will Underwood and Shayne Campbell. Campbell's single scored Dawson Johns. With the bases loaded again, Dockery drew a walk bringing in Burney putting the lead 8-1.

Everything was looking great for the Eagles as they appeared to be sealing an opening game win. Barquero ran into a little trouble in the fifth and gave up a run and then gave up one more in the sixth as Faulkner would chip their way back into the game. Reinhardt was able to pick one run in the bottom of the fifth for their final run of the game. Tucker Zduich would get it going again with a triple to right field and scoring Dawson Johns who previously walked.

Both teams would go scoreless in the seventh and the score was Reinardt 9, Faulkner 4. Faulkner was able to make a tight game of it in the top of the eighth. Carson Bennink came in to relieve Barquero in the seventh and started off with a scoreless inning, however, in the eighth - Faulkner (with the help of a few costly errors) was able to bring three across the plate making the score 9-7. Reinhardt fans had to hold their breath as the game became within striking distance for Faulkner.Jaily Paredes came in to pitch for Bennink in the eighth after Faulkner scored one run. Errors would cause another two runs for Faulkner as they pulled within two of Reinhardt, 9-7.  The Eagles would go three up - three down in the bottom of the eighth and it was up to Paredes to finish out the top of the ninth.  He was able to strike out the first two batters and got the final batter to fly out to right field ending the game, 9-7 Eagles.

Coach Burton had this to say about the game, "Very proud of these guys, it didn't look good late but we found a way. Self-inflicting wounds have cost us some games early but not tonight. Sometimes in order to move forward, you have to know how to win these types of games. Two more tough games this weekend but this one tonight was a little tougher than it probably should have been."

Barquero picked up his second win of this early season and Paredes got the save. Dawson Johns and Tucker Zdunich would go 2-4 and 3-4 respectively scoring five runs for the Eagles. Jacob Profit would go 2 for 5 scoring one run.

The Eagles will be back at Ken White Field tomorrow at  5 pm when they face Taylor University in game three of the day on Friday. On Saturday, they will play game one of the day at 11 am as they face the Bobcats of St. Thomas. You can follow all of the games on the tournament site link here - SOUTHEAST RUMBLE.