SALISBURY, Md. – The No. 20 Salisbury University baseball team returned to action on Wednesday afternoon when they hosted Eastern Shore rival Washington College (Md.), but fell to the Shoremen, 10-7.

The first four innings flew by quickly as Salisbury (3-2-1) starter Jimmy Adkins and Washington (3-0) starter Billy Benson went toe-to-toe. However, it was Benson who cracked first in the fourth inning when he allowed a run to score with two outs when Scott Cameron drove Brandon Bonesteel home from third base on a single up the middle.

The Shoremen answered in the fifth with a one-out double down the right field line to drive a run home from first base. Andrew Rosso came in to relieve Adkins and sat down the next two batters to avoid any more harm.

The Sea Gulls then quickly took the lead back in the bottom half of the inning. After Jay Perry led off the inning with a double to right center field, a Cameron Hyder sacrifice bunt and a Ron Villone single through the right side of the infield brought the score to 2-1.

A two-run homerun in the sixth gave Washington the lead for the first time in the game, but a two-out single by Perry in the bottom half pulled things even at 3-3.

Washington added two more in the seventh inning to go up 5-3.

Then, with darkness beginning to set it, the Sea Gulls mounted an eighth inning rally that resulted in four runs and a 7-5 lead. Cameron kicked off the inning with a walk before Justin Meekins advanced the runner on a sacrifice bunt. Perry and Jason McDonough then drew consecutive walks to load the bases before two more walks by Villone and Brad Haas tied things up at 5-5. A Bonesteel single up the middle scored the final two runs of the inning.

The Shoremen would not accept defeat, however, staging an impressive ninth inning rally of their own, scoring five total runs to flip the script and take a 10-7 lead before closing out the bottom on the ninth for the victory.

Salisbury will return home on Saturday, March 2 when it hosts No. 15 Oswego State University in a doubleheader matchup. Game one first pitch is set for 11 a.m.