NUTTER FORT, WV - The Tigers took to The Frank for their second consecutive home series of the regular season. Salem kicked off a three-game series against the  Mansfield Mounties on Sunday with a doubleheader and finished up on Monday afternoon, completing the three-game sweep and improving to an impressive 6-0 home start.

GAME ONE 

Sunday's doubleheader consisted of two games scheduled to be seven innings. Sam Schmitt took the mound first for the Tigers and was able to generate some weak contact for outs one and two before surrendering a double to the Mounties. No harm was done as Schmitt got the next batter to roll one over to the shortstop for a groundout to bring out the Tiger offense. Leadoff hitter, Jose Lojo, got the Tigers rolling early with a double to start the bottom of the first. Hunter Rose followed up with a single to get Lojo in scoring position which he took advantage of on Mackenzie Wainwright's groundout that scored Lojo and got the Tigers on the board early. Schmitt continued to work through the Mounties lineup, only facing three batters in the second inning. The Tigers were all over the base path in the bottom of the inning. Salem put four men on base and scored two of them with RBIs from Nathan Kuhn and Brett Ehr to balloon Salem's lead to 3-0. Schmitt began to see some trouble at the top of the third while working through the order for a second time. Mansfield was able to tack on two runs to trim the deficit to one before Schmitt could get out of the inning. The Mounties got right back at it in the top of the fourth, sending one more man across home plate to even the game at 3-3 with three and a half innings left in regulation. Schmitt got through his fifth inning of work without allowing any more runs, but the Tiger offense had lost their ability to score runners from second, which they had done well all season. Schmitt exited with the game still tied and gave the ball over to Travis Lavendier, who the Tigers would lean on heavily in this one. Lavendier delivered, pitching two shutout innings to get through the seventh, but the Tigers had still been unable to score another run, so the game went to extras. Once again Lavendier took the mound to try and get through another scoreless inning, and he delivered when the Tigers really needed him. To start the bottom of the eighth Andrew Leginze came in to pinch-hit for Alex Harper. Ligenze went down on strikes, bringing up Jacob Barcikowski who drew a walk before stealing second with still one out. Due up was Aaron Forbes to pinch hit for Aidan McMurdo. Forbes went down on strikes which sent Brett Ehr to the plate with the game on the line. Ehr boomed a towering homerun over the left field fence to win the game in walk-off fashion for the Tigers 5-3.

GAME TWO

 It was Frankie Gulko who took the bump for the Tigers in game two of the afternoon and he settled in quickly. Gulko got ahead in counts on the early batter of the Mounties lineup, keeping the pressure on Mansfield. After a scoreless top of the first Salem's offense went to work early once again. Jose Lojo was plunked with a pitch to start the game which sent him to first. During the following at-bat, Lojo stole second to get into scoring position with no outs for the Tigers. Nathan Kuhn was able to move Lojo to third with a sacrifice bunt to get the Tigers ninety feet away from scoring the game's first run. Three-hole hitter, Tyler Shinn, rolled one over to the shortstop, but it was good enough to score Lojo from third and give the Tigers the early lead. The Mounties got out of the inning with only one run surrendered, but Gulko had not cooled down while in between mound appearances. Once again he held the Mounties scoreless and maintained the Tiger lead. Salem struck again in the second inning when hit an RBI single that scored Luis Angarita from second base giving the Tigers a 2-0 lead. The top of the third had Gulko working through the Mounties order for a second time, but the Mounties still couldn't quite figure him out. After another scoreless top of the inning, Salem looked to continue their offensive success to try and put the game away. Nathan Kuhn got things rolling with a leadoff walk and was quickly awarded with a run from an RBI double from Tyler Shinn. Salem now held a 3-0 lead in the third, and that is where the score remained for a while. Gulko continued to go to work against the Mansfield lineup, but the Tiger's success offensively against them began to dwindle. Until the fifth inning when things got back on track. Salem put up one more insurance run off a hard grounder from Justin George which scored Nathan Kuhn making it a 4-0 ball game with two innings remaining. Salem got through the sixth with no problem, but Mansfield looked like they may make a run at them in the seventh. The Tigers gave up their first run of the game off a passed ball that scored for Mansfield after their leadoff triple. With the Tiger lead down to three and still three outs remaining Gulko locked in to close this one out. He struck out the next two batters before getting a game-ending groundout to shortstop, Brett Ehr, locking up a 4-1 Tiger victory.

GAME THREE

Monday afternoon the Tigers faced Mansfield for the final time in this home series with a chance to complete the sweep. Jaryd Lund took the mound for Salem and he struggled with control early on. Lund walked the leadoff batter who advanced on a passed ball after the Tigers got the two-hole hitter out. Once again Mansfield drew a walk which put two men on with one away. It was Mansfield who struck first this time off of a fac fly that scored the runner and made it a 1-0 ball game. Lund got out of the inning without allowing any more harm and turned things over to a Tiger offense that had been successful in the previous two games. However, it was a different day than it had been before and the Tigers went 1-2-3 for a quick bottom of the first inning. After a somewhat rocky first inning, Lund settled in, making quick work of Mansfield and keeping them scoreless through the three innings. In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Tigers finally hit pay dirt. Luis Angarita scored Tyler Shinn with an RBI single to tie the ball game 1-1. Colby Scheuber took over the pitching duties in the top of the fifth for Salem and he picked up where Lund had left off, holding the Mountie scoreless for the fourth inning in a row. Salem's offense had clearly begun to heat up during the fourth, and they had seemingly progressed from heating up to hot. The Tigers began to pour it on. First, it was Jose Lojo pitching in with a 2 RBI single that scored Ben Matos and Jacob Hurley. Then, it was Tyler Shinn who absolutely smoked a three-run shot that scored Jose Lojo and Nathan Kuhn making it a 6-1 Tiger ball game seemingly out of nowhere. Schueber got through a scoreless top of the sixth, but the Tiger offense went down quickly at the bottom of the inning after a fifth filled with fireworks. Ben Sitarenios came out of the pen for the Tigers to start the seventh inning and take over for Schueber. He surrendered a leadoff walk but seemed to get things under control by striking out the next batter swinging. Mansfield had other plans. They worked through at-bats methodically, and they took advantage of the Tiger's mistakes. Sitarenios gave up three runs to the Mounties before Zack Kendall was called in to relieve him with two outs on the board. Kendall gave up a two-run homer to the first batter he faced which tied the game at 6-6 before he was able to get out of the inning on a flyout. Time was of the essence as the final three innings of play began and Salem came to bat with a sense of urgency. After all the momentum had swung into Mansfield's favor the Tigers flipped it back into theirs. Tyler Shin delivered yet again with another RBI that scored Jose Lojo and gave the Tigers back the lead. Shinn was able to add an insurance run thanks to a wild pitch from the Mounties which scored him from third and made it an 8-6 Tiger ball game. Salem looked to their Jhayden Raineri for a six-out save. Raineri delivered, holding down the Mansfield lineup and ending the game with an 8-6 win for Salem to sweep the series and remain undefeated at home.

The Tiger homestand continues with a four-game series against Kutztown University scheduled for March 2nd-3rd. First pitch times for all games are 12:00 & 2:00 on both days.