After watching his brother Tyler have a successful season on the mound for the Salisbury baseball team last year, sophomore Chad Cooperman's time has come.

Much like his older brother's success, Chad continues to carry on the tradition of successful pitchers in the family name. He even took Tyler's number from last yearNo. 10.

In his first start of the season, Cooperman threw seven innings of four-hit baseball to lead the Falcons (4-3 in Colonial League) to a 6-0 win over Northwestern (4-3 in Colonial League) on Friday evening at Salisbury High School.

Cooperman also struck out six batters and walked two.

"I felt good," Cooperman said. "I was locating pretty well. I didn't have the velocity today, but I was locating my curveball well and fastball well."

"Tyler was taller and everything," said head coach Mike Pochron, "but Chad is still young, too. There are similarities. Both are tough. He certainly knows the game and knows how to pitch. He's a pitcher, not just a thrower."

Although it was a mid-April Colonial League game against a cross-division rival, the game had meaning for playoff races. It was the Falcons' fourth straight conference win after starting 0-2 in the Colonial League.

Following their 17-0 win over Moravian Academy on Saturday in which Brad Vangeli through a perfect game, their winning streak reached five games before falling to Catasauqua, 5-4, on Monday.

For a number of the Falcons, that 0-2 start served as a wake-up call early in the season.

"It was a gut check the first two games that we lost in the league," Cooperman said. "But we came back strong, and we're playing really well right now."

"Since my freshman year, I can't remember many times that we lost two games in a row, if ever," Vangeli said. "So it was something we weren't really used to. It was definitely a wake-up call."

While Cooperman was dealing early, not allowing a hit until the third inning, the offense put together a steady output that gave the young pitcher some confidence.

Mike Palmer knocked in Nick Sikora with an RBI-single in the second inning to get the offense rolling. In the next frame, the Falcons added two more runs. Alex Nicholas lined a two-out single in the third that scored Justin Aungst and Evan Kulig, making it 3-0 in favor of the Falcons.

"I was trying to find a fastball down the middle," Nicholas said. "I got it and I tried to put it in play."

The first three Falcon batters of the fourth inning reached base on singles, culminating with an RBI-single from Vangeli that scored Adam Ebner.

Sikora added an RBI-single in the fifth, while Aungst came up with his second hit of the game in the sixth, an RBI-single as well.

All nine starters recorded hits in the win, led by Vangeli's 3-for-4 outing. Charley Rogers, Sikora and Palmer all went 2-for-3 on the day.

In all, the Falcons mustered 10 hits and five runs off Tigers starting pitcher Brandon Edan.

"I was just trying to be aggressive and see the first good pitch I liked," Vangeli said.

"He was throwing me good pitches early in the count, so I wasn't going to wait around. I saw good ones that I liked, so I just hacked them."

The Falcons will host Palmerton on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Results from Tuesday's game against Southern Lehigh were not available at time of press.