With the postseason fast approaching, every game is an opportunity.

No team is more aware of that fact than Salisbury, a program that has won two District 11 Class AA baseball titles since 2011, the year the Falcons also advanced to the PIAA state championship game.Salisbury kept alive its hopes of another appearance in the district and league playoffs Wednesday, earning a 9-3 win over Northern Lehigh in a critical Colonial League West Division contest."It was close early, but it was a game we knew we had to have," said Salisbury head coach Mike Pochron. "We knew they would come out strong and that they would be tough."We needed a big game from (starting pitcher) Eric Schware and he gave it to us. He did exactly what we needed on the mound - he came out and gave us five strong innings. Everyone is playing a lot of games now, so we needed the extra innings and for somebody to step up, and he did a good job for us today."Schware, who allowed three hits, two earned runs and five walks, withstood a long first inning, as the Bulldogs sent seven to the plate and took a 2-1 lead without recording a hit. A walk by Luke Eitner (1-for-3) scored Evan Meixsell, and a balk allowed Ashton Bevans to come home to put Northern Lehigh in front.But it was the last time the Bulldogs would be on top.After knotting the score at 2-2 in the top of the third, the Falcons (7-6, 6-6) grabbed a 4-2 lead on a two-run single by Peter Forestieri in the fourth, and extended the advantage with four runs in the fifth, highlighted by a two-run single off the bat of Joey Galantini before an RBI single by Chad Cooperman capped the inning and put Salisbury up 8-3."We were up early and probably could have been up by more," said Northern Lehigh head coach Greg King. "We just didn't take advantage of the opportunities offensively."They walked us a bunch of times early on and we didn't take advantage of it. But, they were able to take advantage of our mistakes. We had a lot of walks and they took advantage of it, where we didn't. They got the key hit and we just didn't."Following Forestieri's two-run single in the top of the fourth inning, the Bulldogs (3-11, 1-11) answered in the bottom half of the frame when a Zachary Rex groundout scored Carlos Figueroa to cut the deficit to 4-3.But Northern Lehigh was outscored 5-0 over the final three innings, and Salisbury set the final tally when Peter Dubois drove in Schware with an RBI single."They were just able to execute offensively, and we didn't," said King. "We still battle every game…we're working hard and we're trying. But we lose focus and have one bad inning where they score four runs."Take away that one inning and it's a different ball game. If we score more runs early on, it's a different ball game."Chad Cederberg and Tekoah Guedes also collected hits for the Bulldogs.TRENDING UPWARD. … Wednesday's win marked the fifth in a row for Salisbury, which hasn't lost since a 13-4 setback to Southern Lehigh on April 18.STRUGGLING. … While the Falcons continued their hot streak, the Bulldogs' prolonged slide continued, losing their fifth straight.SWEEP. … Salisbury completed a regular season sweep of Northern Lehigh after picking up a 5-1 win in their first meeting April 6.Salisbury 101 241 0 - 9 11 3No. Lehigh 200 100 0 - 3 4 1Schware, Sukanick (6) and Dubois; Lancsak, Evangelist (6), Eitner (6) and Kistler. W - Schware. L - Lancsak.