NUTTER FORT, West Virginia - In their return to action this week, the Salem baseball team had a rare schedule formality on the docket. Instead of the traditional multi-game series in one location, the Tigers had a split home and home series with old rivals West Virginia Wesleyan. The first contest on Tuesday afternoon took place in Buckhannon, and Game 2 was played on Wednesday afternoon in Nutter Fort. Both of those contests resulted in Tigers wins, and they played out as follows:
Salem 9, West Virginia Wesleyan 8
For Game 1, things looked grim when the Bobcats led off the contest with a total of 7 runs in the first three innings. However, Salem built their comeback bid in the 5th inning. The Bobcats walked both Kaiden Zacharias and Nathan Kuhn with the bases loaded to give the Tigers the first two runs of the contest for Salem. Tyler Shinn then doubled to bring in both Kuhn, Zacharias, and Brett Ehr and Sam Schmitt singled to bring in Shinn. With the pressure on, Salem would finally take the lead in the 8th when Jose Lojo stole home for the Tigers to give them a 1 run lead and eventually a 9-8 win in Buckhannon. On the mound, Salem got a good combined performance from starter Tyler Sammons, Zack Kendall, Ben Sitarenios, and Travis Lavendier. All 4 pitchers combined for 10 strikeouts in the game, and Lavendier earned the win for his just over 2 innings of scoreless pitching for the Tigers.Â
Salem 16, West Virginia Wesleyan 4
In Game 2, Salem uncorked the most impressive offensive performance of the season with a total of 16 runs off of 12 hits. Of those 12 hits, 6 were doubles for the Tigers. Two of those doubles came from Nathan Kuhn, who also recorded 2 RBIs on the day. Brett Ehr and Jose Lojo also had 2 hits each and brought in 2 RBIs. On the pitcher's mound, starter Frankie Gulko led off the game with 4 strong innings of work, and recorded 6 strikeouts while allowing just one run. Evan Bell, Tyler Gump, and Keith Wallace finished out the game for the Tigers on the mound, and Salem ran away with a dominant 16-4 victory.
These two wins should give Salem some great energy ahead of their next set of games this weekend. They hit the road for their longest road trip of the season on Friday when they head down to Dahlonega, Georgia to take on the University of North Georgia. The Tigers will play a 3 game, 3 day series with the Nighthawks starting on April 14th at 5 PM.
