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

NUTTER FORT, W.V. – Salem opened up their week with a game against Davis & Elkins College today at 3pm. Davis & Elkins, another Division II school located only just over an hour from Salem, put up a good performance against the tigers scoring 12 runs to Salem’s 4.
 
The tigers were the first to score in inning 1, Luis Angarita hit a single and was able to steal a base. Nathan Kuhn then hit another single which gave Angarita the opportunity to come home leaving the score 1-0 to Salem. D&E responded to this in the second inning tallying 5 hits and 2 runs. The tigers we able to even the score when Trey Hissam singled bringing home Jacob Hurley. In the third inning D&E scored another 2 runs and Sam Schmitt singled which let Angarita return home for a second time leaving the score 3-4 to D&E. The tigers were unable to score again until the 9^th inning when Hayes Lightsey got on base with a single and then scored thanks to a double hit by Aaron Forbes. D&E however put up an extra 3 runs before the 9^th and then scored 5 runs in the last inning taking the score to 4-12 to D&E. The tigers will get a chance to redeem themselves against them on April 19^th. Their next series will be against Bluefield State University at home on Saturday the 25^th of March.

Story and image courtesy salemtigers.com

Salem University’s Kaiden Zacharias had himself a week.

The senior outfielder from Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada recorded 4 stolen bases, 2 doubles, a triple, and a walk-off base hit to secure a 3-games-to-1 series victory over Fairmont State. For his efforts, Kaiden has been named the NSAC Baseball Player of the Week.

Congratulations, Kaiden!

NUTTER FORT, W.V. – After Salem’s baseball team fell in some tight games during their opening weekend series with Shippensburg, they were ready to finally get back into the win column in their next series. For that series, they played host to local rival Fairmont State. The Falcons took the opening game of the series on Saturday, but Salem rallied to win the final three games of the series capped with a grueling 12-inning battle on Sunday night.

Story and image courtesy salemtigers.com