NUTTER FORT, West Virginia - After rattling off three straight wins to overcome Fairmont State last weekend, the Salem baseball team had another local rivalry series on their hands this weekend. This time the foe was the Battlers of Alderson Broaddus. While the Tigers came up short in the first two contests, they were able to rally with a big afternoon win in the series finale on Saturday to avoid a Battler sweep. All the weekend's games played out as follows:

Alderson Broaddus 7, Salem 2

On Thursday, the Tigers had their work cut out for them early on as they fell behind when the Battlers tallied all their runs in the first 5 innings. Salem was able to respond with two runs of their own off of a Nathan Kuhn RBI triple in the 5th, and a Jacob Hurley RBI single in the 6th. While it appeared that Salem was about to string together a comeback bid, the contest was called after 6 innings due to darkness. 

Alderson Broaddus 10, Salem 4

On Friday night, the game started off tightly contested. Alderson Broaddus added two runs in the first, and Salem was to add a run of their own in the bottom of that same inning with a Collin Curry single that brought around Nathan Kuhn. However, the game started to look much like the previous night when the Battlers added another 8 runs in the 2nd, 5th, and 7th innings. The Tiger's responded with a rally of their own in the 7th and 8th. It started when Miguel Bonilla, Jr. reached on a fielder's choice and brought in Trey Hissam from third. In the 8th, Luis Angarita scored when Hissam was walked with the bases loaded. Ben Matos brought in Sam Schmitt off of a sacrifice fly. However, Salem was unable to muster any more of a comeback, and they fell 10-4 in 9 innings. 

Salem 11, Alderson Broaddus 5

On Saturday, the pressure was on as Salem was in danger of a sweep at the hands of their local rivals. However, the Tigers rose to the task. The tone was set with an impressive pitching performance from starter Sam Schmitt, who tallied 8 strikeouts in 5 innings of work. Offensively, arguably the most exciting play of the young season for the Tigers occurred to open the scoring in the game. Jose Lojo came up to bat with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, and he hit a deep drive to right that rolled all the way to the warning track. Lojo showed off his speed, and made it all the way back to home for an inside the park grand slam. Kaiden Zacharias then added an RBI single to make it 5-0. Salem added two more in the fourth when Nathan Kuhn made it home off of a Battler fielding error, and Tyler Shinn added an RBI single. In the 6th, Jose Lojo scored again off of a Kuhn sacrifice fly. Lastly, Kuhn and Zacharias each added RBI triples to bring the Tiger run count up to 11. With that lead, Salem rode out the strong relief pitching from Travis Lavendier and Keegan Oliver to a strong 11-5 win to avoid the sweep. 

Salem's baseball team will return to action next weekend in Nutter Fort when the Mercyhurst Lakers feature as the 4th of 4 consecutive home series for the Tigers to open up the season. The first two games against the Lakers will start on March 4th at 1 PM at Frank Loria Memorial Field.