Through the first five games of the season the Falcons already have thrown two shutouts as the pitching staff has done its job well. The only blemish came against one of the two new teams in the Colonial League, Lehighton.

Austin Spisszak threw a complete-game shutout against Palisades in a 5-0 Falcons win. In the outing, Spisszak allowed just one hit and didn’t walk a batter while striking out five.

Spisszak started the year with 12 shutout innings before he ran into the Lehighton offense. The Indians have scored 77 runs in six games this season and downed Salisbury 13-3 on Saturday.

Lehighton got to Spisszak for four earned runs in three innings, which only lifted his season ERA to 1.87.

In the win over Palisades, Michael Stauffer drove in two runs and Josiah Kuhns scored three times for Salisbury. Stauffer, a senior, is 6-for-10 over the last week of games and is batting .467 on the season and leads the team with six RBI through the first six games of the season.

Against Jim Thorpe, the other new team in the league this season, Owen Fogel and Dom Gracia both pitched well but were victimized by shaky fielding. Three errors led to six unearned runs, but the Falcons were able to pick up a 7-6 win in eight innings against the Olympians.

Fogel threw 5 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts and Gracia covered the final 2 1/3 innings to get the win. Neither pitcher allowed an earned run in the game.

Fogel has posted a 0.87 ERA in three outings with 17 strikeouts in 16 2/3 innings of work for the Falcons. Gracia has made four appearances and has a 1.75 ERA with seven strikeouts in eight innings. As a staff, Salisbury has a team ERA of 1.89 among four pitchers who have appeared in games this season.

In addition to his work on the mound, Gracia was 3-for-5 against Jim Thorpe with a run scored and an RBI. Stauffer had two hits and sophomore Markus Jones drove in two runs in the win.

On Monday, Salisbury defeated Northern Lehigh 3-2 with Caleb Gonzalez, Jones and Stauffer all collecting two hits in the win. Gonzalez also had two hits and scored a run in the 13-3 loss to Lehighton.

With Stauffer leading the way, Salisbury is batting .289 as a team this season. Spisszak is also off to a hot start and is hitting .389 with five RBI. Three of his seven hits – two doubles and a triple – have been for extra bases. Gonzalez is hitting .353 and leads the team with eight runs scored, while Gracia is batting .318 for Salisbury.

Over the next week, the Falcons (4-1 Colonial, 5-1 overall) host Moravian Academy (0-5, 0-5) and Executive Education Academy (1-3) and will play at Bangor (1-4, 1-4) and Southern Lehigh (4-2, 4-3).