MONTGOMERY, Ala. - July Sosa turned in the most impressive performance of his Faulkner career with a new program record 17 strikeouts in eight innings as the Eagles (28-12, 17-2 SSAC) took a 6-3 win to open the Senior Day weekend against SSAC foe Brewton-Parker (17-25, 10-9 SSAC) Friday night at Harrison Field.
Sosa's special day started yesterday when his father and daughter came into town to see him play for the first time since 2019. "To be honest, I didn't have no sleep last night," Sosa said after spending the night comforting his daughter. "I'm glad that my dad could see that. I had speed in my fastball, my cutter was breaking at least five feet and my curveball was on point. I felt like I could throw any pitch for a strike tonight." Sosa delivered 78 strikes on 112 pitches for a 69.6 percent strike rate while striking out the side four times in six three-up, three-down innings while striking out two in the other two innings.
Offensively, Faulkner struck first in the first inning after a couple of throwing errors allowed Shawn Ross to score with two outs off of Alex Arauz's batted ball. Brewton-Parker answered back with a Malik Germany single to tie it in the second. After the single, Sosa retired the next 11 batters with eight punchouts.
With their pitcher dealing, the Eagles scored twice in the third with two-out RBI singles from Arauz and Evan Gilliam. Sammy de la Cruz made it 4-1 with a double down the right field line to score Jack Brinkley who was hit by a pitch in the fourth. Arauz, the nation's leader in walks drawn, drew a bases loaded walk to increase the lead to four.
The Barons made things interesting in the sixth when a seeming double play ball went into the dirt on the back end allowing two runs to score with two outs to make it a 5-3 game. Ross singled up the middle in the bottom half of the inning to score de la Cruz to end the scoring. Sosa retired the side on strikes in the seventh and eighth to end his day and set the stage for Brayan Garcia to close the door. After pitching into a bit of trouble with the tying run at the plate with one out, the closer earned his sixth save of the season.
de la Cruz reached base safely four of his five times up with two hits and two walks. Ross also recorded two hits. Arauz recorded two RBIs.
Sosa (8-1) allowed just four hits and walked just two earned in eight innings. In two career starts against Brewton-Parker, Sosa has 31 strikeouts in 17 innings. He struck out every batter who came to the plate Friday night at least once. He broke the Faulkner record previously held by Jay Gouse (16) against Point on May 12, 2014 and tied Georgia Southwestern's Paul Bush's total against Flagler College March 22, 2002.
The Eagles' magic number to clinch the conference title outright falls to two following the win. With one win of the two games Saturday, Faulkner clinches the top seed in the SSAC Baseball Championship due to holding the tiebreak over Loyola, the only team still in the hunt for the regular season title.
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