SALISBURY For both the Salisbury and Northern Lehigh softball teams, one-run losses have been a commonality all season long.

Entering Tuesday's meeting between the two teams, five of Salisbury's losses in a recent seven-game losing skid in the Colonial League came by one run. Northern Lehigh hasn't had much better luck, with three losses coming by one run. During last week's pivotal stretch in the Colonial League, one-run defeats to Palmerton (2-1) and Southern Lehigh (3-2) haunted the Bulldogs once again.And while their battle against Salisbury began a new week in conference play, it seemed like déjà vu all over again for the Bulldogs.Despite taking a quick 2-0 lead in the top half of the first inning, that lead quickly disappeared when Salisbury added two runs in the bottom half of the frame. The Falcons then added two more runs in the fifth, which turned out to be the deciding factor in the Bulldogs' 4-3 loss at Salisbury Middle School."That's our fourth one-run loss," head coach Bob Hicks said. "We have to change that around. It's those one-run games. We're 8-5, and in four of those games we lost by a total of four runs."We had a 3-2 lead here, and we let them back in the game by passed balls and errors."That 4-3 loss came not even a week after Northern Lehigh downed Salisbury by that same score in 10 innings last Thursday.The biggest difference this time around? It was four Bulldog errors that resulted in two Salisbury runs and a wild pitch that brought one more across home plate."It's not common," Hicks said of the errors. "It just happened today. We didn't play our best today. We didn't up to our potential."Northern Lehigh took a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning when Sage Hargreaves lined a RBI-single to center field. That broke a string of three scoreless innings for the Bulldogs.But as quickly as the Bulldogs regained the lead, the Falcons were even quicker to retake it.With runners on second and third, a wild pitch from Amber Thomas scored Salisbury's Morgan Goletz that tied the game at three. But catcher Danielle Hoffman had trouble getting the ball back to Thomas on the diamond, resulting in another Falcon run to cross home just seconds later."We didn't get the ball back to the circle," Hicks said. "Until the ball isn't back in the circle, they can advance. And that's what they did."Katie Hoffman (1-for-4, 2 runs) opened the game with a single to center field and later scored on a Bulldog steal attempt at second base. Thomas' fielder's choice scored Hargreaves (1-for-3, 1 RBI) four batters later to make it a 2-0 ballgame.The Falcons, however, rallied with two runs in the first to tie it. Salisbury's Meghan Williams turned a single into a run after a Bulldog error in the outfield, and Thayla Creswell brought in the other Falcon run.Thomas, despite allowing just five hits (three of which came in the first inning), was credited with the loss."This is the first game where we went back-to-back," Hicks said. "Usually I alternate, and today I didn't alternate because it was the first day that we had a break in between games."No. Lehigh 200 010 0 - 3 5 4Salisbury 200 020 x - 4 5 1Thomas and Hoffman; Costello, Rogers (3) and Creswell. W - Rogers. L - Thomas.