Winning close district playoff baseball games comes down to taking advantage of the opportunities presented.

North Schuylkill didn’t have as many opportunities as Salisbury last week in their District 11 Class 2A semifinal. But the Spartans made the most of the few they did get in beating the Falcons 2-1 in extra innings.

“We had a couple opportunities,” said Salisbury head coach Mike Pochron. “I guess we give their pitchers credit that they got out of the jams. They walked the first two batters of the game and they got out of that jam.

“I don’t know how many guys we left on. We didn’t have a great amount of guys left on base, but we did have guys on second base about three or four times in this game and just couldn’t get the base hit that we needed.”

The Falcons left at least one runner on base in seven of the eight innings, starting in the first inning when North Schuylkill pitcher Tevin Murray walked the first two batters of the game then struck out two and induced a ground out to get out of the inning.

The top-seeded Spartans (18-4) had trouble getting runners on base. Salisbury starter Chad Cooperman allowed just four hits through the first seven innings. He allowed no base runners in four of the first seven innings. He pitched every inning of both Falcon district playoff games this season.

“You couldn’t ask anymore of him,” said Pochron. “He did a great job on the mound.”

But with the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh, a Falcon error allowed the Spartans to put a runner on second base with no outs. The next batter, Richie Zahodnick singled to drive in the game-winning run and end Salisbury’s season.

“It’s unfortunate the way it ends,” said Pochron. “Not only did we drop it, but then we overrun it and the kid gets to second base.

“It was just one of those days. We battled. Those are tough pitchers. We gave it all we had today.”

The Falcons had a few hard-hit balls that couldn’t find gaps in the outfield and were also victims of some nifty fielding plays by North Schuylkill’s infield.

The Spartans’ Murray and Bob Grigas combined to allow just three Falcon hits while striking out nine and walking seven.

The Spartans took a 1-0 lead on two hits and a walk in the third inning.

Salisbury answered with its first two hits of the game in the top of the fifth inning. Joey Galantini hit a one-out single and Colin Wagner walked before Murray was pulled from the game after throwing 106 pitches over four and a third innings.

Grigas induced a ground ball for the second out of the inning, before Nick Sikora belted a single into right field to tie the game at 1-1.

From there, Grigas allowed only one more hit and one walk.

The Spartans went on to beat Notre Dame (Green Pond) 6-2 in the district title game.

Salisbury ended its season with a 12-9 record. After a slow start to the season, the Falcons got hot through the middle and latter parts of the season to earn a place in the district playoffs. They missed a league playoff berth by just a couple wins, but were in contention through the final week of the season.

Riding Cooperman’s arm, they won their opening-round district playoff game and were just a key hit or two away from knocking off the top-seeded Spartans.

“Overall we’re happy,” said Pochron. “We always want to win it, but I think we accomplished pretty much with this team. I’m pretty happy with where we started and where we ended up. We are certainly much better than when we started the season.”

Salisbury started four sophomore and two junior players in the district playoffs, so despite losing Cooperman and three of his classmates to graduation, the team will have some experience back next season.

“For us to be in this game and for them to gain this experience, it’s good to be here in this pressure situation,” said Pochron.

The veteran head coach will miss Cooperman, a four year starter, along with Sikora, a three-year varsity player, as well as fellow seniors Larry Zong and Michael Schmidt, who both played two years of varsity baseball at Salisbury.

“We’ll miss them,” said Pochron. “They gave us all they had.”