SALISBURY, Md. – The top-ranked Salisbury University baseball team came out firing on all cylinders in its season opener, blasting four home runs with five pitchers combining to shut out the Widener Pride, 16-0, on Saturday afternoon at Donnie Williams Sea Gull Baseball Stadium.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Sea Gulls got the train rolling in their first turn at bat. With two out and men on first and third, Stephen Rice bounced an RBI single through the right side, then Roman March rolled a run-scoring hit up the middle. Jacob Ference followed by crushing a first-pitch three-run home run to left, giving SU an early 5-0 advantage.
• Salisbury continued flexing its muscle in the second inning. After the first two men reached, Luke Weddell laid down a bunt single and Dom Frigiola came home on a bad throw from third base. After a walk, a double steal and two strikeouts, March found another hole on the right side for a two-run single. Ference came up and again connected on the first pitch for a towering two-run homer to left to make it 11-0.
• In the third, Weddell rolled a one-out single up the middle and Kavi Caster cracked a long home run to right field to make it 13-0 SU.
• Salisbury got another run in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI groundout from Cameron Hyder, then in the sixth Weddell brought home one of his own on a groundout to build the lead to 15-0.
• Danny Sheeler provided the exclamation point in the home seventh, powering a solo homer to right for the Sea Gulls' fourth round-tripper to give the game its final 16-0 margin.

SALISBURY GAME NOTES

• Jacob Ference matched his home run total from 2022 with his first two pitches of 2023. He narrowly missed a third jack in the fourth inning when he hit a double halfway up the right field wall. Ference finished the game 3-for-4 with three runs scored, five RBIs and 10 total bases.
• Roman March went 2-for-4 with two runs and three RBIs in his Sea Gull debut, while Danny Sheeler batted 2-for-5 with a homer and two runs scored in his first game for SU.
• Kavi Caster finished 1-for-2 with a two-run home run and two runs scored.
• Luke Weddell batted 2-for-4 with an RBI and three runs scored.
• Jackson Balzan (1-0) spearheaded the clean sheet for the Sea Gulls, allowing three hits over five innings with one walk and five strikeouts. With a fourth-inning punchout, Balzan became the sixth player in Salisbury history to amass 200 career strikeouts.
• Robbie Hollenbeck, Mitchell Wittkamp, Corey Burton and Todd Hendrix combined to shut down the Pride over the final four innings and wrap up the six-hit shutout.

WIDENER GAME NOTES

• Eighth-hitting Stephen Posner managed half of the Pride's hits, going 3-for-4.
• Nine-hole hitter Andrew Yates finished 2-for-4, giving Widener five of its six hits from the final two slots in the batting order.
• Caleb Horner (0-2) was saddled with the loss after surrendering 11 runs (seven earned) on nine hits in just two innings of work.

UP NEXT

• The Sea Gulls will wrap up their opening weekend with a highly-anticipated doubleheader against longtime rival and 14th-ranked SUNY Cortland on Sunday morning.
• The Red Dragons beat Widener 16-1 earlier on Saturday.
• First pitch of Game 1 is slated for 10 a.m. with coverage on the Sea Gull Sports Network (SGSN) to begin at 9:45 a.m. Game 2 will follow approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.

Salisbury University is a proud member of NCAA Division III with primary membership in the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference, along with the New Jersey Athletic Conference for football, Coastal Lacrosse Conference for men's lacrosse and the Metropolitan Swimming and Diving Conference for men's and women's swimming. With over 500 student-athletes in 21 varsity sports, SU is recognized as one of the most competitive intercollegiate athletics programs regardless of division, and dedicated coaches and staff that foster excellence on-and-off the field. The Sea Gulls have celebrated 22 team national championships, 24 individual national champions, 188 conference championships and 43 Academic All-Americans.

To Make Tomorrow Yours at Salisbury University, and learn more Sea Gull Athletics' tradition of excellence, visit www.SUSeaGulls.com or on social media @SUSeaGulls.