Last year’s version of the Salisbury High School baseball team surprised a few people and shocked Central Catholic when Jake Zellin delivered a walk-off grand slam in the seventh inning to beat the Vikings in the district semifinals.

They ran into Saucon Valley’s Cole Hubert in the district championship game and Hubert pitched the Panthers to gold medals as Salisbury finished with silver medals around their necks.

Zellin and six other seniors graduated but left a good amount of talent behind for Salisbury. The roster has eight seniors this year, many of whom saw a lot of playing time last season.

A talented group of pitchers including Owen Fogel, Austin Spisszak, and Dom Gracia, who combined for a 2.22 ERA and covered 87 innings return this season. Spisszak pitched to a 1.22 ERA last season and will serve as the ace on this year’s staff. Markus Jones also threw four shutout innings last season and could see an increased role this season.

Jake Bucchin, Tom Lovelidge, and Zellner provided much of the offense last season and are all off to college. Fogel and Spisszak were also among the team leaders in offensive stats and provided two home runs and 34 RBI for the Falcons and will look to build on those numbers this season. While the team lost some talented pitching, the offense may be the area that was most left in disarray by graduation and coach Justin Aungst is going to look to find some new bats in the lineup.

“Offensively, we are looking for a few guys to step in and fill the holes in the lineup, said Aungst. “But we think we have some guys who can take the next step and help us out.”

Caleb Gonzalez hit .286 and scored 16 runs for Salisbury last season and Nate Nunez hit .267 and was second on the team to Bucchin with 23 runs scored. Mike Stauffer is one of the bats to watch this season as the senior looks to build on his .250 average, two home runs and 16 RBI from a year ago.

Derek Trinidad had a small sample size at the plate last season and is another senior player that can help to build offense for the Falcons. Sophomore Garrett Leiner wasn’t on the varsity roster last season but has the potential to help in the lineup.

One of the biggest issues for Salisbury has been defense. The Falcons defense committed 62 errors last season that led to 54 unearned runs, just under half of the 109 total runs allowed by the pitching staff. For the most part, the graduating players were not the issue as they made just 18 of the errors, meaning that the remaining players will have to improve.

“That’s something we just have to be better at,” said Aungst. “That’s just too many opportunities to be giving up to the other team.”

Salisbury will need some things to go right this season, including finding more offense from the remaining players, but after a 19-7 season and a trip to district finals last season, the team has enough remaining talent to look to make a similar run.