MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – It took two-plus hours for No. 2 Salisbury to take the lead but a two-run home run by Kavi Caster in the bottom of the eighth inning gave the Sea Gulls an advantage they would not relinquish in a 6-2 victory over Penn State Harrisburg at Nittany Baseball Field in the opening contest of a five-game NCAA Regional Series between the programs on Friday afternoon, May 19.

Caster finished 2-for-4 with the go-ahead home run, a double, and two RBI, while Stephen Rice went 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored. Jimmy Adkins earned the complete-game victory after allowing just one earned run, throwing 127 pitches, and striking out seven batters.

Maddux Ryan went 2-for-3 with a run scored, while Matt Parks finished 2-for-5 with a double. Blaine Waltimyer drove in a run and Brendan Henn added a double of his own. Josh Berzonski was excellent in his start for the Lions, striking out five without surrendering an earned run in 6.1 innings of work.

Penn State Harrisburg (33-11) struck first when Dallas Hite led off the first with a single to center field before moving to second on a passed ball, advancing to third thanks to a Kevin Lehner two-out single through the right side, and eventually scored the game's first run on the second passed ball of the half inning.

The Sea Gulls (31-5) answered in the bottom of the second, scoring in the same manner the Lions had in the top of the first. Rice reached with a one-out single, advanced to second on a Luke Weddell ground out, and came across thanks to back-to-back passed balls to tie things up.

A pitcher's duel commenced for the ensuing three innings, with Adkins and Berzonski limiting base runners and preventing any runs until the top of the sixth when Ryan led off with a single up the middle, Carlos Irizarry moved him to second with a groundout to third base, and Waltimyer drove him in with a single up the middle.

Rice's strong day continued in the bottom of the seventh when he got on with a one-out single to center field and moved into scoring position thanks to another passed ball. Weddell came through with a single to left center and pushed Rice across to tie things up before reliever Simeon Davis induced back-to-back fly balls to keep things tied after seven.

After the Lions stranded a runner in the top of the eighth, Caster provided the game's biggest swing in the bottom half when he homered to right field with Adam Tommer aboard to give the top seed its first lead of the day. Before the inning was through, Danny Sheeler scored on another passed ball and Scott Cameron was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to push another run across and stretch the advantage to four.

A pair of runners moved into scoring position for Penn State Harrisburg in the top of the ninth after Henn doubled with Joe Licolli on base but Adkins hunkered down and induced a ground ball that he fielded himself to secure the final out and give the Sea Gulls a 1-0 series lead.

Penn State Harrisburg and Salisbury will face off in the second game of the weekend's NCAA Regional Series on Saturday morning, with the first pitch scheduled for 10 a.m. Game three will also be played on Saturday and is set to begin 45 minutes after the conclusion of game two.