NUTTER FORT, W.V. – After their unsuccessful midweek contest against Davis & Elkins, the Salem Tigers baseball team played host to the Big Blue of Bluefield State for a 3-game series and came out of the weekend with a sweep of the Big Blue.
Salem 6, Bluefield State 0
In the first contest of the series, Salem met with the Big Blue at DCHS field in West Union for a doubleheader. Offensively, Sam Schmitt opened up the scoring in the game with a home run in the 2nd inning. The game remained at a tight 1-0 Salem lead until the 6th when the Tigers added 5 runs. It started with a Ben Matos 2 RBI single, and then a balk call on the Big Blue pitcher allowed Jose Lojo to advance from third for the third run of the inning. Luis Angarita then knocked another in with an RBI triple. The final run of the inning and the contest came from a masterfully executed double steal play allowed Luis Angarita to steal home to make it 6-0. On the pitcher’s mound, Salem benefitted from a great performance from Jaryd Lund, who got the complete game win by allowing just 2 hits and logging 3 strikeouts.
Salem 4, Bluefield State 2
In Game 2, the second leg of the doubleheader in West Union was a tight game early on. The Big Blue scored 2 in the top of the first, but Salem responded in kind with 2 of their own. The first came from a Kaiden Zacharias single to bring in Luis Angarita. After that, the Tigers were able to fill the bases, and then a walk of Sam Schmitt by the Bluefield State pitcher allowed Zacharias to bring in the 2nd run of the inning. However, with a tied ball game, the pressure was still on for the Tigers. They broke the deadlock with another RBI single in the 2nd, and this time it was off of the bat of Nathan Kuhn to make it 3-2. Salem kept control of the game through the following innings, and added one more insurance run in the 4th when Luis Angarita made it home once again off of a Brett Ehr groundout. From there, the Salem defense held, and the Tigers earned a 4-2 win. Another win and another great pitching performance aided the Tigers in the victory. This time, it came from Sam Schmitt, who logged 9 strikeouts in 7 innings of work for another complete game win for the Tigers.
Salem 18, Bluefield State 7
For the final contest of the series, the Tigers returned to their home field of Frank Loria Memorial field for a Sunday afternoon contest. This time, Salem really showed off their offensive capabilities with a total of 18 runs in the game. From the plate, Salem put up a whopping 18 hits, including 2 home runs from Nathan Kuhn, 1 home run from Trey Hissam, a pair of triples from Luis Angarita and Kaiden Zacharias, and another pair of doubles from Kuhn and Angarita. On top of uncorking their best offensive day of the season, Salem benefited from another strong pitching performance. This time, it was a group effort with starter Tyler Sammons, Travis Lavendier, Ben Sitarenios, Jhayden Raineri, and Keegan Oliver combining for a total of 10 strikeouts. Tyler Sammons also logged his first win of the season.
With this weekend sweep of the Big Blue, Salem (8-16 overall, 0-0 NSAC) will be looking to double down on this performance in the rematch this week. The Tigers are headed down to Bluefield this time for a midweek road doubleheader starting at 1 PM on March 29th.
Story and image courtesy salemtigers.com
