Salisbury baseball team will be making its fourth consecutive appearance in the District 11 Class AA tournament when they host No. 5 North Schuylkill on Wednesday.

But this year, the Falcons won't be considered favorites like the last two years.

The Falcons, who missed the Colonial League playoffs for the first time since 2010, went 10-6 in the league and a had a .500 mark in the South Division. Like the Falcons, North Schuylkill (13-7 overall; 6-6 in Schuylkill League) missed its league playoffs and head coach Mike Pochron sees a number of similarities in the two squads.

"It looks like they have one top pitcher, [and] we're sure to see him," Pochron said. "He's not a dominating kid, but he keeps them in the games. They play good defense and force you to make mistakes. We'll have to play a good game to beat them."

Pochron believes his team has the pitching and defense to earn their third district crown in four seasons, but he knows disciplined baseball and a tough mental focus will be key in accomplishing that.

The Falcons have been to this stage before, so it shouldn't be anything they're not familiar with.

"At this time of the year, that's the speech I always give them," Pochron said. "How you move on now are the teams that want to keep playing. You've gone through your schedules, and there is a lot of activities that start now.

"People's attention can be distracted. It's the teams that want to keep playing and want to keep practicing that are successful and move on."

It's been an up-and-down season for the boys in blue and white. After starting off the schedule with a 1-2 mark, the Falcons won 10 of their next 11 games, including a 10-0 romp over the No. 1 seed in the district, Notre Dame (Green Pond). But a 2-4 mark to close out the regular season ended their bid at a league playoff spot and a high district position.

The last time Salisbury took the field was against Southern Lehigh on May 7. It'll be exactly two weeks since playing a meaningful game when their district run gets under way.

"There's no reason why we can't get to the finals and win," Pochron said. "Do we have the ability? Yeah, we got the ability and we can get there, but a lot of things have to go our way and you have to see."

It goes without saying that solid defense becomes even more of a necessity once the postseason rolls around. But Pochron knows that his team has to improve on that facet to be a serious threat moving forward.

"The last few games near the end of the season, our defense has really been hurting us," Pochron said. "You can't be giving away runs. We gave away quite a few in our last few games. The team that hits and plays defense, that's who moves on now."

The winner of Salisbury and North Schuylkill will travel to take on No. 1 Notre Dame (Green Pond) on Friday. The Falcons lost their most recent meeting against Notre Dame, 5-1, on May 2.