NUTTER FORT, West Virginia - The Tigers returned home this afternoon following a four-game road trip that Salem went 2-2 on. Salem has seen success at home all season long and looked to continue that into today during their matchup against the University of Charleston Golden Eagles.

GAME ONE

Travis Lavendier, who typically comes in from the pen, was given the start for game one of the afternoon and delivered the Tigers a scoreless top of the first. Salem's bats got to work early in this one. With two on Tyler Shinn sent a high fly ball into the outfield. The wind was blowing today and a gust caught this one making it difficult to field which allowed Mackenzie Wainright to score to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Shinn, now on second, attempted to steal third and when the throw was off target he was able to round for home giving Salem a two-run first inning. Charleston responded in the second with a groundout to short that scored the runner from third to make it a one-run game. The Golden Eagles grabbed the lead from Salem off a two-run shot that made it 3-2 Charleston before the Tigers could get out of the second. Salem responded right away with a solo shot from Shinn to knot the game up in the bottom of the third, but in the top of the fourth, it was Charleston again utilizing the long ball. This time it was just one run that scored, but the Salem lead was gone. Salem was gifted a run in the fifth when Mackenzie Wainright was able to round the diamond due to a medley of errors on Charleston's part to make it 4-4. Salem turned things over to Jhayden Raineri who gave up another solo shot to the Golden Eagles in the sixth but was able to limit the damage to just that. Once more, Salem went to the bullpen. This time they called upon Andrew Leginze to keep the Tigers in contention. Charleston tacked one more on for insurance in the top of the seventh and Salem came up short in the bottom half of the inning, resulting in a 6-4 loss.

GAME TWO

The second game of the afternoon had the makings of a pitcher's duel early on. Sam Schmitt took the mound for Salem and was a strikeout machine, both looking and swinging. Charleston's pitching staff performed a more collaborative effort on the Tigers, but the results were similar. Charleston was the first to strike in the top of the fourth off of an RBI triple. In the bottom half of the inning, Salem worked a bases-loaded situation with just one out. Wainwright reached on a fielder's choice that scored Aidan McMurdo and brought up Shinn with men on the corners and two outs tied up. Shinn delivered with a triple that scored Nathan Kuhn and Wainright to make it 3-1 Salem. The Tigers gave up two more to the Golden Eagles in the sixth off a sac fly and a passed ball that allowed Charleston to tie the ball game. After a scoreless seventh from both squads, the game went to extras. Charleston struck first in the top of the eighth, getting one across with an RBI single to make it 4-3. The Tigers came up just short in the bottom half, closing out a 4-3 loss to wrap up the day.

Salem will be back at home tomorrow afternoon against West Virginia State University at 1:00 and 3:00.