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Salisbury Baseball Downs Wabash, 7-5, In Third Round Of NCAA Regional Tournament

Salisbury Baseball Downs Wabash, 7-5, In Third Round Of NCAA Regional Tournament

The 29th-ranked Salisbury University baseball team survived another day at the NCAA South Regional, picking up a 7-5 victory on Friday afternoon to eliminate Wabash College.

Senior Drew Baldwin closed out the victory, not only sending the Sea Gulls to the final day of the regional and two wins from the World Series, but also putting his own name in the Salisbury record book. Baldwin recorded his eighth save of the season, the most in any year by a Salisbury pitcher, breaking the eight-year old record of Cory Willey.

Salisbury (31-12), the fourth seed in the regional, needed some late scoring to give Baldwin the chance at the saves record. The Sea Gulls scored single runs in each inning from the second until the fifth inning to grab a 4-3 lead, but fifth-seeded Wabash (22-22) would come back with two in the top of the sixth to grab a 5-4 lead.

The Sea Gulls would keep their season alive with three runs on three hits in the bottom of the sixth inning. Junior Tyler Bennett opened the inning with a walk and advanced to second on a single by junior Chris Connor. After a groundout, senior Dustin Herbert singled to right field scoring both Bennett and Connor to give the Gulls the 6-5 edge.

Freshman Ken O'Neill later drove a sacrifice fly to left field, bringing home Herbert for an insurance run.

The three runs made a winner of reliever Andrew Levy. The sophomore came on for senior starter Nathan Young in the top of the sixth inning. Levy worked 1 1/3 perfect innings of relief before giving way to Baldwin, who worked the eighth and ninth to collect the save.

Salisbury pounded out 15 hits in the game, led by freshman Bill Root who went 4-for-4 and Herbert who finished 3-for-4.