Salem, Mass. --  Matt Doxter (Somersworth, N.H) outdueled freshman Will Twiss (Masconomet, MA) in a mix of snow and rain to lead the Plymouth State Panthers to a 2-1 victory over the Salem State Vikings at the Central Campus Baseball Field on Wednesday afternoon.  Doxter pitched six and two thirds innings and allowed just a run on five hits with three strikeouts to improve to 2-2 on the year. Plymouth State ups their record to 6-11 while Salem State snaps their eight –game winning streak, and slips to 12-6.

The Vikings opened the scoring in the second inning when Mike Davis (Peabody, Mass.) plated Ryan Beliveau (Lynn, Mass.), who had tripled, with a sacrifice fly to right. Both starting pitchers cruised through the middle innings, until the Panthers answered in the bottom of the sixth. Eric Leitch (Adams, Mass.) led off with a single and following a sacrifice and base hit, scored on an RBI groundout by Justin Walsh (Goffstown, N.H.).

Plymouth State took the lead in the seventh when Peter Esposito (Cranston, R.I.) scored on a wild pitch after pinch- running for Brian Thompson (Southington, Conn), who had led off the inning with a base hit.

Josh Young (Somersworth, N.H.) replaced Doxter in the seventh and pitched effectively until the ninth when he was lifted for Cody Gilchrist (Tyngsboro, Mass). Young went one and two thirds innings and allowed just a hit with four strikeouts.

Meanwhile, Twiss was in command for Salem State until being replaced by Pete Gonski (East Lyme, Conn.) in the eighth. Twiss allowed two runs on just three hits with four strikeouts in the loss.

Gosnski ran into trouble in the top of the eighth, loading the bases on two hits and hit batter. However, George Tsonis (Peabody, Mass.) bailed out the righty by turning a 5-3 double play on a chopper to third to end the inning.

Salem State threated in the ninth as Jose Cedano (Lawrence, Mass.) led-off with a walk and Beliveau followed with a single. Gilchrist was called from the bullpen and following a strikeout, hit pinch-hitter Javier Morales (Lawrence, Mass.) to load the bases.  Gilchrist though, struck out the final two batters to earn his first save of the year.

Beliveau finished 3-for-4 for Salem State, who hosts Endicott tomorrow at 3:30 PM. Paul Reny (South Portland, Maine) and Leitch had two hits each for the Panthers.