Kraus and Jensen power Sea Gulls to win
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. – The No. 9 Salisbury University baseball team picked up its second win of the Capital Athletic Conference tournament, in as many days, with an 8-6 win over the University of Mary Washington on Thursday afternoon at Dickinson Stadium.

The fourth-seeded Sea Gulls (24-7) used a four run ninth inning to hold off the second-seeded Eagles (22-8-1) to preserve the two run win.

Salisbury’s starting pitcher Ryan Bennick went 6.2 innings, struck out five and allowed four runs (three earned) before giving way to Adam Keeling who finished the game and picked up his first win of the season.

Senior Colin Kraus reached base fives times, scored twice as he had a double, a single, two walks and reached after getting plunked by Eagle starting pitcher Chase Townsend. Fellow senior outfielder Andrew Jensen knocked in two runs, scored twice and went 2-for-5 from the dish. The Sea Gulls had four players with a multi-hit game and had seven players reach base safely with a hit.

Salisbury scored in the first inning to take a quick 1-0 as Jensen knocked in Kraus but Mary Washington answered in the third on an RBI single by Eric Fitzgerald to bring in Mike Murphy to tie the game.

The fourth inning saw Salisbury plate one runner and Mary Washington bring two across home plate as the Eagles took a 3-2 lead. The one run advantage held until the seventh inning when Jensen, for the second time on the afternoon, knocked in Kraus and later scored on an RBI single by Justin Armiger. UMW’s Wes Hayden picked up the loss as he came in to relieve Townsend in the seventh inning.

The Eagles responded in the bottom of the seventh with one run to tie the game at four before SU put it away with four runs in the ninth. The Eagles scored two in the bottom half but Chris Anderson flied out to Armiger to end the game.

The Sea Gulls move onto the CAC semifinals where they will face top-seeded York (Pa.) College on Saturday, April 20 at 9 a.m. The Spartans are the host the CAC baseball tournament this weekend. The winner between Salisbury and York (Pa.) will move onto Sunday afternoon’s CAC championship game.