SALISBURY, Md. - The No. 5 Salisbury University baseball team escaped with a close 4-3 win Thursday in the Capital Athletic Conference tournament second round as they shut down a late rally by St. Mary's College (Md.), who had the tying and go ahead runs on first and second base but could not deliver the big hit. SU junior Eric Willey came in out of the bullpen to get the final out to record his second save of the season. Willey pitched a complete game two days ago in a 13-1 win over fifth-seed York (Pa.) College.

Salisbury (34-1) increased its winning streak to 34 consecutive games, best in the nation in any division. The Sea Gulls are now 22-0 at home this season and have won 11 straight against St Mary's (16-19-1) since 2004.

The Sea Gulls, the top-seed, will host the remainder of the CAC tournament this weekend. SU is 2-0 in the tournament and advance to the winner's bracket where the Gulls will face second-seed University of Mary Washington. The Eagles, also undefeated at 2-0, defeated third-seed Wesley College 22-0 in another Thursday second round game. SU and UMW will play the first game on Saturday, April 19, which will begin at 9 a.m. The winner will advance to the championship game(s) on Sunday and the loser will play in the 3 p.m. elimination game on Saturday. Wesley and fifth-seed Villa Julie College play in a 12:30 p.m. elimination game. The winner will turn around and play in the 3 p.m. game.

St. Mary's and York have been eliminated from the tournament after they suffered losses on Thursday. The Spartans dropped a 6-4 contest to Villa Julie in the second round.

The Sea Gulls managed 12 hits on the afternoon but could not string more than three hits together in an inning. SU only had the lead off man on base in three of the eight innings as Seahawk starter Brian Briggs (4-4) threw seven effective innings. SU was able to take advantage of the leadoff man getting on base though as they scored runs in each of those innings. For the season, Salisbury has been able to score a run 49 percent of the time when the leadoff man reaches base.

The other bright spot for the offense was that none of the 27 outs were recorded via a strikeout. This is the second time this season that the Sea Gulls have accomplished this feat. The other came on March 22 against St. Joseph's (Maine) College in the second game of the doubleheader. Salisbury did not do this at all last year.  

Junior starting pitcher Jeff Feigl (4-0) opposed Briggs on the mound and threw six strong innings as he gave up just one run on four hits and struck out four.

Senior Justin Armiger (1-for-5, two RBI) got the Gulls on the board first when he laced a two-run single down the left field line in the first inning. Salisbury had a chance to break the game open as Briggs walked freshman Andrew Miller (2-for-2) and hit senior Tyler Riley (2-for-3) with a pitch to the load the bases with two outs. Freshman Will Evans (1-for-4, one run) was unable to come up with a hit however as he lined out to the shortstop to end the threat.

St. Mary's cut the lead to 2-1 in the sixth inning when senior Mike Broccolino hit a solo home run to right-center field. The Sea Gulls answered right back in the bottom half of the inning as they were able to manufacture a run after Evans led off with a single through the left side of the infield. Senior Brian Camper (1-for-3, one run) bunted Evans over to second base and junior Jordan Crystal (1-for-4, one run, RBI) singled to left-center field to plate Evans.

Freshman Kyle Judson came in to relieve Feigl in the seventh but ran into trouble in the eighth inning as he had trouble finding the strike zone. He issued two walks in the inning one of which forced in a run and also hit a batter. Senior Ryan Bennick made a rare relief appearance to bail out Judson, with two outs in the eighth, and preserved the Sea Gulls' lead at 3-2.

The resilient Sea Gulls responded in the bottom half of the inning and manufactured another run. Camper led off with a single and eventually came around to score on junior Randy Boyle's (4-for-4, one run) RBI single up the middle to increase their led to 4-2. Boyle has reached base in all 35 games this season.

Bennick gave up a lead off single to freshman Bobby Corton in the top of the ninth inning then retired the next two batters on fielder's choices. Bennick was able to get SMC senior Jay Benedetti to hit a fly ball to center field for what looked like the final out of the game, but Crystal dropped the ball which allowed Corton, who was running on contact, to score all the way from first. Benedetti advanced to second base on the error. SU clung onto its one-run lead, 4-3, with a runner on second base. Bennick intentionally walked Broccolino to set up the force play. SU coach Doug Fleetwood went to his bullpen, with two outs, and brought in Willey to get the final out of the game on a groundout to second base.