The Salisbury baseball team completed an up-and-down season a few weeks ago. The Falcons found themselves taking one step up and two steps back only to take a couple steps forward before again slipping back.

Their longest winning streak of the season was two games, which they did three times. Coming into May, their longest losing skid had also been two games until they lost their last four regular season games to finish 9-11. Coming into the regular season finale, they needed a win over Southern Lehigh to make districts, but fell 8-4, ending their season.

As a team, Salisbury had good offense and solid pitching, but defense often let the Falcons down, especially in key spots, costing them wins. The Falcons finished the season with an .880 fielding percentage as a team, committing 72 errors on the season.

“It was the same all year,” said coach Justin Aungst after his team fell to Northwestern Lehigh late in the season. “We hit the ball well, we swung the bats well, we just couldn’t put it together defensively.”

Senior Jordan Tocci led the team in hitting with a .390 average, followed by juniors Jake Zellin (.373) and Tom Lovelidge (.371). Power came from junior Jake Bucchin, who led the team with three home runs while senior Matt Nunez finished with two.

Owen Fogel, a sophomore, led the team with four wins on the mound, while junior Andrew Grejda posted a slim 2.25 ERA, followed by Zellin at 2.33, sophomore Austin Spisszak at 2.37 and Lovelidge (2.60).

As a team, Salisbury had a 3.93 ERA and finished with a .317 batting average.

The team loses just three seniors – Matt Nunez, Zevan Adamchik and Tocci – and brings back valuable players, especially on the mound. With sophomores Fogel and Spisszak back on the mound, with juniors Grejda and Lovelidge also returning, there is a strong core group to build around. Junior Chris Lovelidge and sophomore Josh Holler pitched sparingly for the Falcons but may have expanded roles on next year’s pitching staff. The team loses just 8 1/3 innings thrown by Matt Nunez this season.

The offense will miss Tocci and Matt Nunez (.352) from this year’s team. With Bucchin, Lovelidge, Spisszak, and Zellin coming back, they should be able to put some runs on the board.

“A lot of games slipped away early in the year and a lot of the games we lost, we have outhit teams by six or seven hits and still come away with a loss,” said Aungst, pointing back to the defensive miscues that hurt the team while showing there is plenty of offense and pitching to keep the Falcons in games next season if they can clean up the defensive liabilities.