The Salem High baseball team is 9-4 after winning a River Ridge District game at Cave Spring Tuesday, 7-2. This is a busy week for the Spartans, weather permitting, as they were scheduled to host Lord Botetourt Wednesday and Blacksburg at 5 pm Friday at Billy Sample Field in Salem.
The Spartans hosted Christiansburg for a night game at Sample Field last Friday and pulled off a walk-off 6-5 win. Salem committed four errors and was outhit but still managed to come away with the River Ridge District win.
Jack Stroud started on the mound for Salem and pitched six solid innings, allowing one earned run. The Spartans took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth when Brayden White worked a one-out walk, stole second and third and scored on an overthrow. Ben Farber, who was intentionally walked, moved to third and scored on a Zach Bocock sac rifice fly.
Mason Brown relieved Stroud in the seventh and ran into some trou ble as Christiansburg plated three to go up 5-3. However, the Spartans weren’t done.
Parker Sweet led off the bottom of the seventh with a single up the middle. Stroud grounded into a fielder’s choice to the shortstop but Brown reached on a walk and Aiden Poff followed with a base hit to drive in Stroud, making it 5-4. Brown moved to third on a fly ball by Mason Hale for the second out of the inning and White was intention ally walked to load the bases. With the Spartans down to their last out, sophomore Farber singled up the middle as Brown and Poff raced home with the winning runs.
The win, along with Tuesday’s victory over Cave Spring, allowed the Spartans to hang onto second place in both the River Ridge District and the Region 4D standings.
