Salisbury’s Tim Schware struck out 15 batters as the Falcons picked up a 5-1 win over Catasauqua Saturday.

The senior right-hander struck out the first seven Rough Riders he faced and gave up three hits over six and one-third innings.

“I thought his command was a little off but he battled through and got us into the seventh.,” said Salisbury head coach Justin Aungst. “That’s all we can ask for. Every outing he’s had this year he’s kept us in the ball game. He’s been great.”

Schware was pitching with a lead right from the start, but it could have been more.

The visiting Falcons took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a Matthew Nunez RBI single. They threatened to score a few more with the bases loaded with just one out when Catty third baseman Raymond Estecumber scooped up a hard ground ball and started a 5-2-3 double play to get pitcher McKay Lewis out of the early jam.

Salisbury (5-4 overall, 5-4 Colonial League) got another pair of runs in the third inning when Michael Stauffer (1-for-2, 3 RBIs) knocked in two runs with a single up the middle.

Catty got its first hit in the bottom of the third inning and left a pair or runners on base in that inning. The Roughies (4-6 overall, 3-5 Colonial League) left the bases loaded in the fifth and the seventh innings.

“We had a tough one today, saw a real good pitcher,” said Catty head coach Steve Bradley. “He’s good. We split against him last year. We’re much less experienced this year. We’re a young group. I thought we hung in there with them. We kept the game close and had chances to score with runners in scoring position and good hitters up. We just didn’t capitalize”

Catty’s run came in the sixth inning when Christian Fye was hit by a pitch before a John Pushkar single. An errant throw on a double steal allowed Fye to score, but Pushkar was caught at the plate and Schware struck out the next batter to end the inning.

The Falcons, which left 12 runners on base in the game, made it 5-1 on Michael Stauffer’s sacrifice fly in the sixth inning. They had the bases loaded with no outs in the inning but came out of it with just one run.

“We left runners on, but a couple of those were hard-hit balls that just found the defense,” said Aungst. “Overall we put better at bats together today, we just didn’t capitalize on guys in scoring positions.”

Lewis allowed five hits over four and two-thirds innings, allowing three earned runs while striking out three, walking four and hitting two Salisbury batters. Pushkar came on in relief, allowing one hit and one earned run over two and one-third innings.

Schware came out of the game in the seventh inning with one out and one on. Hunter Rothrock struck out the first batter he faced before walking the next two to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate in Fye, whose hard line drive found the glove of Salisbury short stop Thomas Lovelidge.

Brady Leiner went 2-for-3 for the Falcons. Jordan Tocci was 1-for-3 with two runs scored.

The win breaks a two-game skid for Salisbury, which had lost three of its last four games to some of the Colonial League’s top teams in Palmerton, Palisades and Southern Lehigh.

The Falcons’ next three opponents (Saucon Valley, Bangor and Pen Argyl) have only seven wins combined this year and they’ll face Catty again after that.

“I think we’re in a good position,” said Schware. “I think we have a good stretch of games coming up that are winnable. We definitely could go on a win streak. We just have to start hitting.”

Salisbury scored a total of three runs in its three recent losses and is looking to get its offense going before the postseason arrives.

“We’re playing well,” said Aungst. “We let the ball drop in some close games last week, not getting the timely hit. Overall I think we put ourselves in good position the next couple weeks. We have to keep playing good baseball.”

The Falcons are batting .248 as a team this season, with Graver (.364), Lovelidge (.333), Tocci (.304) and Leiner (.300) leading the way among players who have more than 10 plate appearances. Stauffer, a freshman, was hitting .500 through his first four plate appearances at the varsity level. Nunez (.286) leads the team with eight RBIs, while Rothrock has a team-high 11 runs scored this season.