May 27, 2011

Contact: Amanda Dahl, NAIA Manager of Sports Information & Media Services, adahl@naia.org

LEWISTON, Idaho - No. 9 Concordia (Calif.) opened the 2011 Avista-NAIA World Series with a 7-2 win over No. 8 Faulkner (Ala.) Friday at Harris Field. The Eagles (39-18) advance to take on top-seeded Embry-Riddle (Fla.) Saturday at 3:30 p.m. PDT. Faulkner (48-18) awaits the loser of the Lee (Tenn.) and LSU Shreveport (La.) game for a must-win contest Saturday at 8:30 a.m.

Dean Persinger picked up his seventh win of his senior campaign for Concordia, scattering four hits and giving up a pair of earned runs. He fanned seven and issued five walks. Junior Jason White collected the save in three innings of work. Faulkner starter R.L. Eisenbach suffered just his second loss of the season and now owns a record of 14-2. The senior was touched for five hits and four runs, two of which were earned.

Faulkner scored the first run of the game in the top of the second on Matt Parker's single to left field to drive in Kenny Miramontes, who got on base with a single to left. The Eagles would load the bases, but Persinger worked out of the jam by striking out Justin Jones and forcing Daniel Clayton into a groundout.

It only took two pitches for Concordia to answer in the bottom half of the inning. After a first-pitch strike, Ryan Sheeks stamped an Eisenbach pitch and sent it sailing over the left-field fence to tie the game 1-1 for his third homerun of the season. Danny Casey was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a bunt and was a part of a double-steal to move to third. He came around to score on Kyle Konicek's hit to left to put the Eagles up 2-1.

Concordia added two more runs in the fourth inning, as Robbie Knowles sent Casey and Tyler Derby across the plate with a two-run double to deep left-center for a 4-1 advantage.

In the top of the fifth frame, Faulkner's Brennan Olive sent a hit up the middle of the field. Following a free pass that was issued to Tucker Willard, Clayton snuck a hit through a hole at shortstop to bring Olive around to score, cutting Concordia's lead to 5-2.

Derby scored for a second time and added an insurance run for the Eagles in the bottom of the sixth on Edgar Guillen's fly ball that was misplayed by Faulkner centerfielder Jones. Knowles chalked up his third RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning that scored pinch runner Logan Parsley and Konicek added a sac fly to bring home Casey.

Knowles and Konicek led the way by driving in three and two runs, respectively, for Concordia in the win. Konicek and Casey each had a pair of hits and Casey scored three times.

Parker was the only batter with a multi-hit game for Faulkner, going 2-for-4 at the plate. Four other Eagles registered a hit, but the timely one was unable to be found as 11 Faulkner runners were left stranded.