SALEM, W.V. - The Mansfield Mountaineers baseball team (3-3) traveled to Salem, West Virginia to play a Sunday-Monday three-game series against the Salem University Tigers (5-3). 

GAME ONE 

The Mountaineers fell in game one by a final score of 5-3 in 8 innings. 

Austin Lewis got the start for the first game of the weekend and gave the Mounties a quality start, throwing 6.0 innings, allowing five hits, three runs, two earned runs, and striking out four batters. 

Salem jumped on Mansfield and Lewis early, scoring three runs in the first two innings to take a 3-0 lead into the top of the third.

Ryan Scott got the Mountaineers on the board with his RBI single in the top of the third inning. Another Mansfield run was pushed across when Jacob Houtz singled to cut the deficit to one.

The Mounties tied the game in the fourth thanks to a Logan Wells RBI single that brought home Cole Serfass.

Mansfield once again threatened in the fifth where they loaded the bases with just one out but Salem turned a 6-4-3 double play to get out of trouble and keep the game tied at three. 

The game was relatively quiet until the bottom of the seventh when Salem put runners on first and second with only one out. The Tigers would then single to right, and wave the runner from second home.

Mansfield's right fielder Shay Gustafson fielded the ball cleanly and fired a strike to cut down the potential game-winning run. 

The Mountaineers were unable to capitalize on the momentum of Gustafson's as they couldn't push across a run in the top of the eighth following Houtz's third hit of the game.

In the bottom of the eighth Salem was able to walk off Mansfield with a two-run shot securing the 5-3 win.

GAME TWO 

Looking to bounce back after the heartbreaking game one loss, Mansfield turned to Ryan King for the game two start.

King got through 4.0 innings giving up just three runs on three hits and struck out four. 

Salem was able to tag King early, getting a run off of him in each of the first three innings to jump out to a 3-0 lead.

As the Mountaineers offense looked to find a spark, the Tigers added another in the bottom of the fifth to extend their lead to four. 

Mansfield got on the board in the top of the seventh when Serfass scored on a passed ball after his lead-off triple. Unfortunately, the rally bid stopped there as the Mountaineers' next three batters were all retired.

The Mansfield offense was quiet outside of Zachary Shertzer who had two of the three Mountaineer hits in game two's 4-1 loss.

UP NEXT:

The Mounties finish their three-game series with the Salem Tigers tomorrow, February 26 at noon.