NUTTER FORT, WV - This weekend had the Tigers hosting both the West Virginia State Yellow Jackets and the Walsh University Cavaliers for their first three-game home stand of the season. Salem came into the weekend after a tough road trip to Georgia where they were unable to secure a win against North Georgia.

GAME ONE

Sunday's first and only contest for the Tigers (0-3) was against the Yellow Jackets (2-1).  Jaryd Lund took the bump for the Tigers at the top of the first and began to make quick work of the top of the order for the Yellow Jackets. After a scoreless top of the first Salem's offense looked to take an early lead. After two quick outs, Mackenzie Wainwright stepped to the plate to try and keep the Tiger offense on the field. Wainwright was hit by a pitch and proceeded to steal second during the following at-bat. Salem's next two batters walked as well with the second also being hit by a pitch which loaded the bases for the Tigers. The Yellowjackets got out of the jam with a strikeout to strand all three base runners. Lund continued to work through the Yellow Jacket order pitching another scoreless inning after allowing his first hit of the game. Salem's offense was granted three free passes at the bottom of the second when their first three batters were all plunked by the Yellow Jackets. Leadoff hitter, Jose Lojo, hit a sacrifice fly to center field sending Hunter Rose across home plate. Salem tacked on their second run of the inning when Tyler Shinn drew a walk with the bases loaded, scoring Jacob Hurley and making it a 2-0 Tiger ball game. The Yellow Jackets ended the inning with a strikeout before things could get too out of hand. Once the Yellow Jackets began to see Lynd for a second time through the order they seemed to have made some adjustments. State was able to generate traffic on the base path both through some nice hits of their own paired with some errors on Salem's end. The Yellow Jackets hit a sac fly to score from third cutting Salem's lead in half, but Lynd was able to stop the bleeding by generating soft contact for a groundout. Salem's offense got runners on in the third once again, but they failed to score any, stranding three runners. After walking the first batter of the fourth, Lynd settled down and went 1-2-3 to put the momentum back in Salem's favor. The Tiger offense began to heat up in the fourth by scoring two more runs from Mackenzie Wainwright and Tyler Shinn. With his pitch count rising late in the fifth and two on with two outs, Lynd made his only big mistake of the night and gave up a three-run shot to the Yellow Jackets, swinging momentum in their favor and tying the game at 4-4. After his bloop, he settled back in and ended the inning with a groundout to the shortstop. The two teams remained deadlocked deep into the game, and in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Yellow Jackets errors caught up with them. An error by the catcher trying to get Wainwright out as he stole third led to Wainwright rounding third and scoring for the Tigers and regaining the lead. Later in the inning, Hunter Rose sent Tyler Shinn across home plate with an RBI single to tack on some insurance for Salem. It was Frankie Gulko on the mound for the Tigers in the top of the ninth with a chance to put it away. Gulko worked through the first two batters easily, but the third managed a single and sent the tying run to the plate. Gulko punched him out to end the game and secure the win for the Tigers 6-4.

GAME TWO (7 INNINGS)

Monday afternoon the Tigers had the first of their doubleheader against the Walsh University Cavaliers (1-0) at noon. Sam Schmitt took the mound for Salem and saw a little trouble early on. After striking out the first batter Schmitt got into a one-out bases-loaded scenario in part from an error from the Tiger infield. Schmitt punched out the next batter and got the following to fly out to end the inning with no harm done. The Tiger offense had no answers for Walsh going down 1-2-3 for a quick bottom of the inning. Schmitt got into a groove to start the second, striking out the first two batters he faced. After giving up a walk Schmitt generated a groundout to third and ended the top half of the second. Once again the Tigers went down in quick fashion with still no base runners. Schmitt returned the favor by going 1-2-3 against the Walsh lineup to swiftly put the Tiger offense back on the field. Salem broke Walsh's run of perfection with a single to start the bottom of the inning followed by a double from Aidan McMurdo which scored Ben Matos. Salem's offense continued to pile it on in the third putting up a 4 spot on the Cavaliers by scoring Aidan McMurdo, Brett Ehr, and Luis Angarita with RBIs from Luis Angarita and Tyler Shinn making it a 4-0 ball game. Schmitt continued to have a quality outing into the sixth holding the Cavaliers scoreless. In the bottom of the inning, Tyler Shinn put the nail in the coffin on the Cavaliers with a two-run bomb that scored himself and Mackenzie Wainwright and put the Tigers up 6-0 with just one inning of play left. Travis Lavendier took over the pitching duties for Salem in the seventh with a six-run cushion and only three outs needed to secure the win. Lavendier made quick and easy work of the Cavaliers, striking out all three batters he faced and ending the game with a Tiger win.

GAME THREE (7 INNINGS)

After a 2-0 start to the weekend, the Tigers had an opportunity to finish the sweep with their second game against Walsh. This time it was Colby Scheuber on the mound for Salem and the Cavalier offense had come to play. After striking out the first batter Scheuber allowed the next two to reach base and then got taken yard by the Cavaliers to give Walsh a very early 3-0 lead. Scheuber got his groove back, striking out the next two batters he faced to minimize the damage. Salem generated some early offense which led two baserunners on second and third with one out. Tyler Shinn sent a shot deep into the outfield to score Hunter Rose on an RBI sac fly, and the Tigers followed that up with an RBI single from Luis Angarita to score Hunter Rose and make it a 3-2 ball game.  Salem grounded out to end the inning. Scheuber gave up some early hits in the second which led to an RBI single for Walsh, giving them some early insurance. He was able to get away with only one run this time which kept the Tigers in striking distance. The Tigers scored again in the second off an RBI groundout from Jose Lojo which scored Max Atkinson and made it a one-run game once again. Scheuber was still unable to figure out the Cavalier batters in the third, allowing two more runs before striking out the final batter of the inning. The Tiger offense continued to be a problem for Walsh. Salem scored two more runs in the bottom of the third on an RBI single from Justin George which scored Mackenzie Wainwright and a sac fly from Aidan McMurdo which scored Tyler Shinn making the score 6-5 Cavaliers. Zack Kendall took over on the mound for Salem in the top of the fourth and other than a solo shot surrendered to the Cavaliers he held down the fort. The Tiger offense cooled down in the bottom of the inning and was not able to cut into the Cavalier lead. After a 1-2-3 top of the fifth for Salem the Tiger offense caught fire. Luis Angarita got the action started with an RBI triple that scored Tyler Shinn and made it a 7-6 ball game. That was followed up by a single from Aidan McMurdo that scored Angarita and tied the game at 7-7. Salem wasn't done there. With two men on Jose Lojo hit a stand-up double which scored Max Atkinson and Aidan McMurdo giving Salem their first lead of the game 9-7. The Tigers tacked one more on for safety when Lojo scored on an error to give Salem a three-run cushion. Kendall continued to shut down the Cavalier offense until late in the sixth inning when Jhayden Raineri came in to relieve him. Raineri picked up where Kendall had left off, generating an inning-ending double play immediately and sending the Tigers into the bottom of the sixth still on top. After a scoreless bottom of the inning, Raineri took the mound again to close the weekend out. He got the first batter to fly out and allowed the second to reach first before ending the game with back-to-back strikeouts to complete the Salem weekend sweep with another Tiger win, this one 10-7.

The Tigers are next scheduled for a four-game home series in Nutter Fort, WV against Mansfield University. Game times are 2:00 and 4:00 on February 23rd and 12:00 and 2:00 on February 24th.