NUTTER FORT, West Virginia - For the second afternoon in a row the Tigers took to their home field for an afternoon doubleheader. This time to square off against the West Virginia State University Yellow Jackets. The doubleheader would be the second time the two have met this season, with the first meeting resulting in a 6-4 Tiger win.

GAME ONE

Salem sent out starter, Frankie Gulko, to get things started for the Tigers. Gulko delivered a scoreless first inning and handed things over to the offense who were unable to capitalize leaving the game tied after one frame. The Tigers gifted the Yellow Jackets the first run of the game in the top of the second with an error. Salem was able to rebound from that and get out of the inning before allowing any more damage. After another empty inning from Salem's offense, State took one out over the left field wall for two more runs to make it 3-0 Yellow Jackets. The Tigers responded with a sacrifice fly from Mackenzie Wainwright that scored Alex Harper from third, followed by an RBI single from Tyler Shinn that sent Luis Angarita home from second to bring the game within one. The Yellow Jackets went to work in the fourth. Gulko had worked through the order twice already and they had begun to get a feel for him. After filling up the bases, State strung together a few base hits to score two which forced Salem to go to reliever Richie Preston. With the bases loaded Preston couldn't afford to walk a batter and State was dominating the strike zone. They scored one more off a single before capping things off with a grand slam to make it 10-2. The Yellow Jackets continued their hot offensive streak into the fifth with another homer, this one bringing two across and an RBI single to pad their lead even more. Salem chipped away a little in the bottom of the fifth with a triple from Shinn that scored Wainwright and a single from Brett Ehr immediately after that sent Shinn across the dish. State continued to put it on in the sixth, they put up another three-run inning on the Tigers after a lightning delay. Salem continued to work regardless of the deficit when they came to bat, scoring Harper with a sacrifice groundout from Angarita in the sixth and capping the game off on a positive note with a solo shot from Jacob Hurley to close out a 16-6 loss and gain a little momentum heading into game two.

GAME TWO

After a tough first game, Salem sent out Jaryd Lund to carry the pitching workload for game two. Lund allowed some traffic in the early goings but was able to keep the Yellow Jackets scoreless through one. Once again the Tigers couldn't get anything going in the first frame and took a tie into the second. The Yellow Jackets put up a four spot in the second to take momentum into their favor and quiet the Tiger dugout. Salem got a little mojo back in the third when Wainwright and Shinn scored Harper and Jose Lojo in back-to-back at-bats. The Tigers capped off their big third inning with another run from Angarita who was sent home by Hurley. After a tough first few innings, Lund settled in and began mowing down the Yellow Jackets, retiring seven straight. Salem tied the ball game in the fifth when Hurley was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score Angarita. The Tigers then took their first lead of the afternoon when Aaron Forbes was hit by a pitch in the following at-bat to score Wainwright. Max Atkinson added some insurance for Salem with a sacrifice groundout to score Brett Ehr before ending the inning with a 6-4 lead. Deep into the pitch count, Lund continued to work in the sixth. With two men on, State was able to score from a wild pitch to make it a one-run game. Lund limited the Yellow Jackets to the one run before turning things back over to offense. Salem was unable to pad some insurance and took a one-run lead into the final inning of regulation. State tied things up with a one-out solo shot to send the game into extras after Conor Thiele came in to finish the game after the home run. Thiele put up a scoreless top of the eighth to get extras started and gave Salem a chance to walk this one off. With one out and nobody on Nathan Kuhn worked a walk which sent Hunter Rose in to pinch run for him. Rose advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt to get into scoring position, bringing leadoff hitter Jose Lojo up to bat. Lojo delivered a well-struck single that sent Rose rounding third for home where he would be safe by a mile to win this extra innings contest in walk-off fashion 7-6.

The Tigers will take the week off before returning home to for a four-game series over two days against Fairmont State. The two are set to square off on April 6th & 7th at 1:00 and 3:00 PM on both afternoons.