Coming into the season, new Salisbury head softball coach Brian Fehnel said one thing his young team needed to learn was how to play a full seven innings.

In their latest outing, the Falcons did one better and played eight innings to gain a walk-off win over Allentown Central Catholic.

After Sophia Gunning opened the eighth inning with a walk and Gianna Olds followed with a double, Central Catholic decided to walk Tessa Kemmerer to load the bases. The plan backfired when Taylor Wagner lifted a fly ball to center that was misplayed and allowed Gunning to score the winning run for a 6-5 win.

The Falcons opened with a three-run first inning as they loaded the bases on walks with two outs and Zaira Stokes collected the fourth walk of the inning to force in the first run. Sydney Foulke followed with a lined single to center field that brought in both Amelia Swoyer and Olds for a quick 3-0 lead.

Central Catholic battled right back and put up five runs over the next three innings for a 5-3 lead, but the Falcons didn’t give up. Two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth and a fly ball to left brought in one run to make it 5-4. Salisbury again used walks in the seventh to put two runners on with for Leilanna Negron, who came up with a huge two-out hit to drive in Wagner and tie the game through seven innings and set up the eighth inning heroics.

While Salisbury collected just four hits in the game, its young hitters showed a lot of plate discipline and collected 13 walks in the game.

Jenna Swoyer started for Salisbury and gave way to Kemmerer after three innings. The sophomore pitcher threw five shutout innings to give the offense an opportunity for a come-from-behind win.

The win put Salisbury at 2-1 on the season after a 21-2 win over Dieruff that followed a 7-3 loss to Pen Argyl in the season opener.

Kemmerer and Jenna Swoyer have combined for a 3.15 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 20 innings in the first three games. As a team, Salisbury is batting .329.

Olds, a freshman, has five RBI and is hitting .500 (6-12) and has scored six of the 28 runs the Falcons have scored. Kemmerer, who is a sophomore, is leading the team with a .556 (5-9) average. Foulke and Stokes lead the team with six RBI each.

Baserunners have been successful on their first nine attempts with Gunning stealing three bases and Olds and Kemmerer both swiping two bags in the first three games.

The Falcons have all Colonial League opponents on the schedule for the next week as they host Palisades, Lehighton, and Northern Lehigh and have a road game at Jim Thorpe mixed in.

After facing Palisades at home, Salisbury will face the two new additions to the Colonial League when they play at Jim Thorpe and then host Lehighton. On Monday, the Lady Falcons will host Northern Lehigh.