No. 6-ranked Salisbury had it going in all three phases of the game Monday and handed No. 19-ranked St. Thomas Baseball a 6-1 defeat in the opening game of the best-of-three championship series for the Division III national crown.
The Tommies (37-9) had a six-game win streak halted. They have to win twice on Tuesday to claim the championship, starting with the 11 a.m. contest in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Salisbury (33-4), which ran its win streak to 13 games, slapped 12 hits and made several running grabs in the outfield. They used two pitchers who have accounted for 19 season victories -- lefty starter Jackson Balzan (9-1), and All-America righty Clayton Dwyer (10-0) -- and that duo allowed just one run and struck out seven on the day.
Adding to the Tommies' challenge for Tuesday: an injury that forced Jake Porter to leave the game. Before straining his leg while playing right field, Porter went 2-for-2 and ran his hitting streak to nine games and his string of reaching base to 17 games.
St. Thomas put its first three batters aboard with singles in the first inning but managed just three hits the rest of the day off two stingy hurlers. Sam Kulesa and Avery Lehman singled and Porter legged out a bunt single to load the bases. Charlie Bartholomew's infield grounder scored a run but was turned into a double play, the first of two on the day recorded by Salisbury.
In the second inning, Salisbury took the lead to stay off redshirt freshman Duke Coborn, the Tommie starter. Jacob Ference stroked a two-run line drive home run just inside the foul pole at the 315-foot mark in left field.
The game's turning point came in the last of the fifth inning. Coborn stranded seven Sea Gull runners in the first four innings and appeared to be set to strand two more and move to the sixth inning down just 2-1. But a two-out grounder headed right for Max Moris at first skipped high in the air over Moris for a two-run double. Porter was injured as he ran to retrieve the bad-hop hit and was replaced by Mike Wallace. Salisbury added another run to lead 5-1 through five innings.
Tommie redshirt freshman Jeremy Klick allowed one run in 3 1-3 innings of relief.
Salisbury is looking to claim its first Division III baseball championship.
The Tommies will have to find the grit they displayed at the regional May 29-30 when they won three elimination games in 24 hours. St. Thomas' second of their two NCAA titles came in 2009 when that Tommie squad beat Wooster twice on the last day to win gold.