It’s been a common theme for Salisbury for much of the early part of the baseball season. Errors and mistakes continue to hurt the Falcons and have left head coach Mike Pochron scratching his head looking for answers.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, who have lost their last five games, much of the same was evident during last week’s Colonial League contest against Northwestern. The Tigers (8-2 overall, 7-1 in Colonial League) came away with the 7-2 win on 15 hits, but it was three Salisbury errors that played a bigger part in that defeat.

“We gave up some runs, and we got a little momentum back,” Pochron said. “We made some mistakes, which hurt us and cost us a run. We just continue to make too many mistakes and hurt ourselves. We can’t afford to make mistakes and make errors and put people on base.”

Losses to Bangor (5-1) and Southern Lehigh (13-4) has Salisbury near the bottom of the West Division standings.

Those mistakes hurt Salisbury (2-6, 2-6) in the fourth inning in particular when the Tigers scored two runs, turning a one-run edge into a 5-2 lead. Northwestern’s Jake Augustus lined a single down the left baseline, but was able to advance to second on a Falcon outfield error. He scored when Brady Mengel reached base on another Falcon error, this one in the infield. Tyler Schreiner scored the second run on a passed ball in the next at-bat.

Northwestern added two more insurance runs, one in the sixth and one in the seventh. Trevor Schreiner tallied his fourth single of the game that scored Niko Fager in the sixth, and Mengel capped the scoring day with a RBI-single to left field with the Tigers down to their final out.

“That’s what we’ve been averaging, three hits a game or so,” Pochron said. “When we hit like that, we have to play perfect defense. And we don’t, so then we end up getting behind.”

After the Tigers jumped out of the gate with three runs in the first, one credited unearned due to a Falcon error, Salisbury got its comeback underway. Michael Schmidt’s RBI-single in the bottom half of the frame got the Falcons to within 3-1.

Eric Schware came across home plate in the second inning on a Pete Dubois single that made it a 3-2 ballgame. But after recording four hits in the first two innings, Salisbury managed just one hit and four base runners over the final five frames.

“We bounced back a little bit,” Pochron said. “We’re not going to quit. We just keep shooting ourselves in the foot with making mistakes. That’s where we’re at.”

Andrew Sukanick pitched the first four innings, allowing five of Northwestern’s runs. Taylor Linn came in for the final three innings and surrendered the remaining three on five hits.

“He [Linn] didn’t do a bad job,” Pochron said. “We threw two 10th graders today. It’s baptism by fire for some of these guys. You get it, and until it happens to you, you don’t know what it’s like. That’s what we have to get through.”