Maybe high school baseball needs a pitch clock.

Salisbury’s game against Notre Dame – Green Pond (1-6, 3-6) Monday went a tick over three hours, but the teams did need to play nine innings and it was as entertaining as any game a baseball fan could want to see.

It turned out well for the home team as the Falcons scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Crusaders 8-7.

The winning run was set up when Owen Fogel opened the inning by reaching base on an infield pop-up that was misplayed.

Jake Zellin laid down a perfectly placed bunt to move Fogel to second. One out later, Fogel took third on a wild pitch and with Nate Nunez up and two outs, Fogel raced home on another wild pitch by ND’s Michael Martino to get the win.

“I saw the ball kind of roll away and I thought I could make it because it wasn’t going to be easy for them to make the play,” said Fogel of the winning run. “We wanted to end this one and make sure we got the win today and we did that.”

Throughout the game, Salisbury had to battle from behind.

Other than the final score, the only time the Falcons (7-0 Colonial, 8-1 overall) led was when they scored twice in the third to take a 2-1 lead. That edge only lasted until the Crusaders put up three runs in the top of the fourth.

Two walks and a double loaded the bases with nobody out for Salisbury in the bottom of the third and Jacob Bucchin singled to right to bring home Nate Nunez. Thomas Lovelidge followed him home when the ball was misplayed in right field, giving Salisbury its short-lived 2-1 lead that was lost when Notre Dame scored three times in the top of the fourth.

Nunez, who had three hits and a walk on the day, started a fifth-inning rally with a single. After Lovelidge doubled, Nunez came home on a ground ball to third by Michael Stauffer, which cut Notre Dame’s lead to 4-3.

Salisbury fell behind 5-3 when Notre Dame added a run in the sixth.

Undaunted, the Falcons put up two runs in their half of the inning to tie the game.

A walk and a single from Caleb Gonzales gave the Falcons runners on first and second with two outs in the sixth for Nunez, who continued his hot hitting with a double to right to bring in both runners.

“Today we fell behind, we came back, fell behind, came back, and it was nice to see, but we came out flat today from the beginning,” said Salisbury head coach Justin Aungst. “We were flat defensively. We were flat at the plate. It wasn’t great, but they woke up a little toward the end and we pulled one out.”

The Crusaders may have thought they put the game away for good with two runs in the top of the seventh, but the Falcons seemed to never have a doubt. Another leadoff walk opened the door for Salisbury, who drew three leadoff walks in the game and had two other leadoff hitters reach on errors. In all, the Falcons only failed to get their leadoff man on base in two innings.

With Stauffer on first, Bucchin reached on an infield single in the hole on the left side and Austin Spisszak delivered a shot to right field for a two-run double, again tying the game, this time at 7-7.

“I’ll be honest, I really wanted to go yard in that at-bat,” said Spisszak with a smile. “Really, I knew I needed to put together a good at-bat and wanted to win the game for my team and I was able to come up big and at least tie the game.”

Dominic Gracia, who got the win with 2 2/3 innings of strong relief, kept Notre Dame at bay through the rest of the game, giving his team a chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth.

This time it was the misplayed pop-up that opened the inning, and the Falcons knew what to do when that door opened for them.

Gracia was the fourth pitcher of the day for Salisbury.

Lovelidge started but was wild and only faced four batters in the game before he was relieved by Andrew Grejda, who threw 5 1/3 innings, giving up just one earned run and striking out seven.

Owen Fogel provided an inning of relief as well to get to Gracia.

“Tommy (Lovelidge) has been great for us all year, but he just didn’t have it today and it was evident,” said Aungst. “So I wasn’t going to run him out there any longer and this way he can come back for us on Wednesday, and I’m confident that he will be good for us again.”

Nunez is on a four-game hitting streak and is batting .467 (7-for-15) during that stretch with eight RBI, batting out of the leadoff spot. Notre Dame only retired him once in their loss to the Falcons.

While Lovelidge struggled on the mound, he contributed two doubles in the win.