Early in the season, Salisbury High School softball head coach Jane Brennan said that her team would be better late in the season than it was at the start because of all the young players who were not just on the roster, but also getting a lot of playing time.

With little varsity experience, those players had some struggles early on, but are showing why Brennan had such confidence in them.

The Falcons (1-15 Colonial, 4-15 overall) have won three of their last six games and are currently on their first winning streak since April of 2021 when they beat Pen Argyl and Catasauqua in back-to-back games. Now, Salisbury has wins against Allentown Central Catholic (5-14) and Saucon Valley (4-11, 4-12) in their last two games and looks to make it three straight when the Falcons play at Southern Lehigh (8-7, 8-10).

In the win over Central Catholic, the Falcons used a six-run rally in the top of the seventh to come from behind to get the win.

Salisbury opened the seventh with a pair of freshmen, Tessa Kemmerer and Taylor Wagner drawing walks and senior Riley Knecht dropped a bunt for an infield single. Later in the inning, Maddie Peifer drew another walk to make it a 7-6 game and with two outs and the bases loaded sophomore Ava Grube singled to left to bring in two runs and give Salisbury an 8-7 lead.

Another freshman, Sydney Foulke drew the fourth walk of the inning for Salisbury and Beth Carney followed with her second triple of the game to put the Falcons up 11-7.

The Falcons took a 1-0 lead on a double by Bailee Neitz, who then scored when Peifer singled to put Salisbury on top. In the next inning, Salisbury got a run on a wild pitch and Neitz grounded into a fielder’s choice that plated the second run of the inning. The Vikettes took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the second only to see Salisbury quickly tie the game in the fourth when Foulke walked, Carney tripled, and Kemmerer singled to plate two runs for a 5-4 Falcons lead.

It was all about the offense in the win over Central Catholic, but a pitcher’s duel erupted in the win over Saucon Valley with the Falcons using a sacrifice fly by Neitz to score Wagner, who had singled to lead off the inning.

Amelia Swoyer threw a complete game two-hitter, striking out six to get the win for Salisbury.

Carney also tripled in a loss to Pen Argyl to give her three triples in the past week. Neitz had two hits, an RBI and scored twice in a 6-5 loss to Northern Lehigh earlier in the week.

Carney, a senior pitcher, reached another milestone in her career when she struck out three batters against Northern Lehigh to put her over the 300 strikeout mark for her career. The mark is impressive considering that Carney missed much of last season with an ankle injury and pitched fewer innings than most top pitchers because of the number of shortened games played by Salisbury.

This season she has also played outfield on a number of occasions, giving younger pitchers the opportunity to develop and give the Falcons experienced pitching for the future.