Salisbury, Md. – The 2012 Capital Athletic Conference Baseball Championship Tournament got underway Tuesday afternoon with first round action.  The sixth-seeded St. Mary's College of Maryland baseball team suffered a 6-3 loss to No. 3 Salisbury University, the tournament's top seed.

With today's loss, St. Mary's (15-18) will now face fifth-seeded Stevenson University on Friday, April 20 at 9:00 am in second round play as Stevenson dropped an 8-5 decision at second-seeded York College of Pennsylvania today as well.  The game will be played at Salisbury as they will serve as the host for the remainder of the tournament.

The Salisbury Sea Gulls (27-6) used a three-run seventh inning to break a 3-3 tie and earn the 6-3 first round victory.  Salisbury will take on defending champion, No. 3-seed Frostburg State University, at 12:30 pm on Friday as Frostburg suffered a 5-3 setback in 12 innings at the hands of No. 4-seed Wesley College.

Salisbury posted an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning as sophomore Johnny Schiotis (Levittown, Pa./Harry S. Truman), the team's seventh hitter, connected on a two-out double to left center and then scored on a Seahawk fielding error.  Senior RHP Michael Victory (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy) kept the Sea Gulls to one run as Victory struck out the ninth hitter.

St. Mary's responded right away in the second inning with two runs to claim a 2-1 margin.  Junior Corey Napier (Hollywood, Md./St. Mary's Ryken), the Seahawks' No. 2 hitter, cracked his fourth home run of the season with just one out, bringing home junior Stefano Muscatelli (Warwick, R.I./Toll Gate) who started the inning with a single to left field.  Back-to-back ground outs ended the inning for St. Mary's.

The Sea Gulls knotted the contest at 2-2 as sophomore Joey Jones (Baltimore, Md./Eastern Tech) came home on another St. Mary's fielding error after reaching base with a single through the right side.  Victory pitched a fly out and a ground out to maintain the game tied at 2-all.

The Seahawks regained a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth inning when junior Mike Schmidt (Burtonsville, Md./Paint Branch) knocked in an RBI single with one out to score senior Keith Johnson (Great Mills, Md./Great Mills), who had led off the inning with a single through the left side, while senior Eric Gronbeck (Owings, Md./Northern) was thrown out at home to hold St. Mary's at a one-run lead.

Salisbury tied the game once again in the fifth as senior Tyler Bennett (Federalsburg, Md./Colonel Richardson) had a foul sacrifice fly to leftfield allowing sophomore Bill Root (Coatesville, Pa./Coatesville) to score.  The Sea Gulls connected on another single before a fly out and fielder's choice ended the inning.

St. Mary's was held scoreless for the last five innings while the Sea Gulls took the lead for good with three runs in the seventh as back-to-back RBI doubles gave Salisbury a 5-3 advantage before an infield single brought home the game's final run.

Victory (5-5) was saddled with loss as he threw 6.2 innings with one strikeout while allowing six runs (four earned) on 12 hits.  Johnson and Muscatelli paced the team at the plate with 2-for-4 efforts.