After a three-game win streak to open the season, the Salisbury baseball team has run into a rough stretch and seen some of its inexperience come to the forefront.

The Falcons dropped their fifth straight game, four of which came last week against a number of talented Colonial League foes. And while Salisbury has now seen its record drop to 3-5 about a third of the way through the season, head coach Justin Aungst saw the team compete in most of those contests.

“Yeah, the last four or five games have been a tough stretch,” Aungst said. “We competed in some capacity in all but one game. That is nice to see, but the majority of our guys are still learning and gaining their first experience.”

A 21-7 setback to Northwestern last Tuesday started that skid, but the score was a bit misconceiving due to a 12-run seventh inning that blew the game out of reach. The Falcons actually led 4-3 after four innings and stayed within striking distance for much of the evening. Northwestern is one of only two remaining unbeaten teams in the Colonial League.

“We took the lead 4-3 in the fourth inning,” Aungst said following the Northwestern game. “We had Tim [Schware] going. Our defense was a little shaky. We have to work some things out with that.

“At the plate we battled. It was a three-run game going into the seventh, and we gave ourselves a chance. We let it get away, so we’ve got some things to work out.”

Salisbury committed eight errors in the Northwestern game.

“So far definitely, yeah, [Northwestern has best the offense we’ve faced],” Aungst said. They’re deep and they’re missing their key guy [Rafe Perich].”

With not much rest, Salisbury faced another tough pitcher against Palisades the next day. The bats once again struggled in a 9-2 defeat to the Pirates.

“Tim, Quinn Warmkessel, Hunter Rothrock, some younger guys like Tommy Lovelidge and Brady Leinert, have been putting together some at-bats for us,” Aungst said. “We’ve just got to keep getting the young guys experience and learning from them.”

Two more tough opponents awaited the Falcons on Friday and Saturday. Southern Lehigh, which is 4-1 in conference play, routed the Falcons 15-4 after an offensive explosion on Friday. It’s been the only contest that Aungst believes the Falcons didn’t compete as well as they could have.

“Our errors have been an issue recently,” Aungst said. “However, Saturday against Catty we tightened that up a bit and played well. Offensively we have faced a couple good arms from Catty, Northwestern, Southern Lehigh and Palisades. We have squared some balls up, but the timely hitting is what has been tough for us lately.”

The Falcons were shut out against Catasauqua on Saturday, 3-0, but the defense and pitching was much better. Schware pitched six innings of solid two-run baseball, allowing just four hits and striking out six batters.