After beating Northwestern Monday night, the Falcons improved to 5-4 and right in the middle of the jammed up standings.

In the win over the Tigers, pitcher Garrett Leiner made the most of his first varsity start and gave his team 5 1/3 innings and allowed just one unearned run. Josiah Kuhns got the final five outs and finished off Northwestern.

Both Leiner and Kuhns allowed some baserunners but were able to get big outs when they needed them and the Tigers stranded 11 runners, nine of which were in scoring position.

Leiner gave up some early hard-hit balls, but as the game went on he got stronger. His curveball, which flattened out and stayed up in the zone to a couple of early hitters, became much sharper with good movement. He kept the pitch low and away to right-handed hitters, many times just inside the zone.

“The curveball has been a go-to pitch for me, that and the fastball,” said Leiner, who was making his fourth appearance on the mound this season and leads the team in innings pitched through Monday. “I was able to locate both pretty well today and got some velo behind it. I felt great today.”

Northwestern Lehigh leadoff hitter Cannon Fitch hit a ball to left field for a double. Finch was then erased on a nice play by Leiner, who fielded a sacrifice bunt attempt and threw out Fitch at third.

Leiner ran into a little bit of a situation in the sixth when Northwestern’s Evan Fatzinger was hit by a pitch and Luke Marazzo followed with an infield single. The throw to first to get Marazzo was wild and went out of play to put runners on second and third. Salisbury went to reliever Josiah Kuhns, who allowed a sacrifice fly to Fitch and then got a flyball to left to end the threat.

Salisbury hitters certainly didn’t have an easy time against Northwestern starter Cole Dynda.

In the fourth inning, the Falcons put a runner on first for Markus Jones, who pounded a ball through the wind to left and watched as it carried over fence for a two-run home run.

It was Jones’ second home run of the season and gave Salisbury a 2-0 lead.

Dynda gave up a leadoff single in the fifth but retired the next six batters to give the Tigers an opportunity to battle back but they were unable to do so as Leiner and Kuhns combined to prevent Northwestern from getting a timely hit when they needed it most.

In addition to the home run, Jones also had a single to lead off the second inning. His two hits accounted for half of the Falcons hits on the day. Jones and Nunez are tied for the team lead in home runs with two each.

“I thought we played well in every facet today,” said Aungst. “Our defense was great today, Garrett threw the ball really well; it was his first career start, and you wouldn’t have known it. He got in some jams today, but then he worked out of them and that was great to see. Then, Josiah came in and put the fire out in the sixth and locked it down in the seventh.”

The win gives Salisbury victories in four of it last five games after beating Catasauqua 13-3 just two days after falling to Southern Lehigh 10-0 in a pair of Colonial League games. Leiner and Jones both had three hits against Catty and Nate Nunez homered in the win. Southern Lehigh held the Falcons to just one hit, a single by Isaac Gross with two outs in the bottom of the fifth.

“We’re going through some ups and downs, some good games and some bad games that we should have won,” said Leiner. “This [beating Northwestern] was a big one for us to get.”

There is a lot of parity in Colonial League baseball this spring.

In league play through Monday’s games, Notre Dame (Green Pond) and Southern Lehigh are both 7-2. Northwestern, Northern Lehigh, and Jim Thorpe are all 6-3.

Salisbury and four other teams are all at 4-4 or better in the overall league standings.