No. 17 Loyola run-rules No. 12 Faulkner in Game 1 Friday

WESTWEGO, La. – The 17th-ranked Loyola University New Orleans baseball team fell behind early in their Game 1 contest with No. 12 Faulkner, but the Wolf Pack stormed back to earn a run-rule, 18-8, win in seven innings. The Eagles scored seven of their eight runs in the first inning, but the Wolf Pack pitchers shut them down the rest of the way, which gave the Loyola bats time to get hot. 
 

Loyola (32-12, 17-8 in SSAC) and Faulkner (30-10, 18-7) will play two games on Saturday starting at 12 p.m. to conclude the series. The Wolf Pack seniors will be honored at 11:30 a.m. prior to first pitch. 
 

Faulkner scored all seven of its first-inning runs with two outs, and those runs came on five hits, two walks and two hit by pitches. Loyola got a couple of runs back in the bottom half of the frame, as Brandon Mooney and Garrett Felix quickly put two runners on base with a walk and a double. Cole Romero had an RBI sacrifice fly, then Landon Manson doubled down the left-field line to make it a 7-2 ballgame. 
 

The Eagles threatened again in the second inning, but a 1-3-2 double play saw the third out made at the plate. They added their eighth run of the game in the third, though, using a balk to get a runner in scoring position. 
 

Loyola pitcher, Prescott Marsh, who entered the game in the first inning, continued to wiggle out of jams. He allowed a leadoff double in the fourth, but got two pop-ups and an inning-ending strikeout to put another zero on the board. 
 

The Pack hung their first crooked number on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Drew Lee singled home Collin Zeringue, who walked to lead off the inning, then Ben Harris and Jaxon Buratt loaded the bases with a hit by pitch and an infield error. Mooney and Felix hit consecutive singles through the infield to plate three more runs, 8-6. 
 

Marsh faced the minimum in the fifth for the first time in his outing, but he did allow a one-out walk. Lee, the Loyola catcher, picked up a ball in the dirt and threw out the would-be base stealer. Marsh also got a strikeout and Harris made a good play at shortstop to sit down the Eagles 1-2-3. 
 

Loyola added five more runs in the bottom half of the inning to take its first lead of the game, 11-8. Like the fourth, Zeringue walked to start things, then Marcus Steen and Lee hit back-to-back singles to make it an 8-7 game. Harris was the next batter, and he put down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners over, but the Faulkner catcher threw the ball away to score two more runs and flip the lead in Loyola's favor, 9-8. A groundout by Buratt scored Harris, 10-8, and an RBI infield single by Manson a couple of at-bats later scored the final run of the inning. 
 

After Marsh gave up a one-out single in the sixth, Carter Holstein got the ball and stranded the runner. Marsh did earn the win with this 4.2-inning performance, scattering six hits while striking out five.  
 

The Wolf Pack added to their lead with a five-run sixth, extending the advantage to 16-8. Jed Cambre, who entered to play left field in the top of the frame, led off with a single, then the Faulkner infield committed another error on a sacrifice bunt attempt, this time off the bat of Lee. Buratt got hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Mooney doubled down the right-field line to plate the first two runs, 13-8. A two-RBI single by Romero made the score 15-8, followed by a wild pitch to score the final run. 
 

Matthew Weil pitched the seventh and gave up a couple of hits, but he also got a strikeout while not allowing any runs to cross. 
 

The Pack brought the run-rule in effect with two more runs in the seventh. Pinch-hitter Garrett Beadle was hit by a pitch to reach with one out, and Harris, who reentered the game, moved to third on a balk and a stolen base. Buratt singled home the run, 17-8, and he later came around to score the game-ending run on a Felix single up the middle. 
 

Pack Facts

• Brandon Mooney reached base five different times Friday, going 3-for-4 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch. He also scored three runs and had four RBI. 

• Landon Trosclair, Ben Harris, and Jaxon Buratt all tied Mooney with a game-high three runs scored on Friday. Collin Zeringue scored twice after leadoff walks in the fourth and fifth innings. 

• Garrett Felix also had reached five times, going 3-for-4 with two walks, two runs, and two RBI. 

• Landon Manson and Drew Lee each recorded two hits and two RBI.

• Cole Romero drove in three runs, bringing him to 61 RBI this season and 112 in his two seasons at Loyola. He's now 10th in career RBI in the Wolf Pack record book and fourth in single-season RBI.

• Prescott Marsh kept the Pack in the game, allowing just one run over 4.2 innings with five strikeouts, giving him 49 strikeouts this season. Marsh, Carter Holstein, and Matthew Weil combined to keep the Eagles scoreless over the final four innings. 

• Brandon Mooney is now fifth in career hits at Loyola with 223. His 19 doubles this season are tied for the most in team history, and his 62 runs scored this season are the fourth-most, which trails only his 2023 and 2024 campaigns and Buratt's 2024 season for the most in a single season.