Northwestern entered Thursday with just one loss in league play. The Tigers, along with Saucon Valley, were the only two Colonial League teams with just one loss.

But that all changed as temperatures hovered in the 40s Thursday afternoon. Not only did Salisbury hand the Tigers another league loss, it was Northwestern's worst outing of the season.Behind Evan Kulig's two-hit pitching performance and three hits and three RBIs at the plate, the Falcons shut out the Tigers, 10-0, in five innings at Salisbury High School.A win would've strengthened Northwestern's lead in the West Division to three-and-a-half games. Instead, the Falcons (7-4 overall, 7-3 league) moved to within a game-and-a-half in the West."We have to refocus," Tiger coach Len Smith said. "We have to learn from this experience. We didn't play up to our ability this afternoon. It was uncharacteristic for us to boot the ball around the way we did and give them three, four and five outs an inning."Nick Sikora reached base on a Tiger infield error in the second and later scored on a CJ Tocci RBI single.Mistakes continued to hurt Northwestern in the third inning. Following a lead-off double by Joey Galantini, Taylor Linn's grounder to first base should have been handled cleanly for the initial out. Instead, Linn reached base safely, Galantini moved to third, and three consecutive singles later gave Salisbury a quick 4-0 lead.In the fourth inning after a walk and single from Galantini, Linn once again reached base on an error. Kulig then drove in a run, Sikora singled to score Linn, and Mike Palmer's two-run single made it an 8-0 advantage.Sikora singled home Linn in the fifth to enforce the 10-run rule.Northwestern (9-3 overall, 9-2 in Colonial League) committed four errors on the day."I think the errors gave them momentum no doubt about it," Smith said. "I don't think we've had a game with more than two all year. It's uncharacteristic for us. That gave them opportunities, and they took advantage of the opportunities."The Tigers' only scoring threat came in the third inning. After Tyler Wilk led off the frame with a single, a Tiger pinch-runner advanced to second on Niko Fager's sacrifice bunt. But Kulig got Brady Mengel to ground out into a fielder's choice, and fanned Tyler Schreiner for his final of three strikeouts."He [Kulig] is a good pitcher," Smith said. "He throws really hard. We just didn't make the adjustments. He kept us a little off balance and we didn't get good contact."Northwestern 000 00 - 0 2 4Salisbury 013 42 - 10 12 0Eden, Augustus (4) and Wilk; Kulig and Rogers. W - Kulig. L - Eden.