Box Score


Grantham, PA … The College of New Jersey baseball team won its fifth straight game, upending Messiah College 14-7 on Tuesday afternoon.
 
Timely hitting propelled the Lions (11-7) to a road victory as junior Jonathan Gabriel (Orefield, PA/Parkland) knocked in a career-high four runs and senior Jimmy Ruzich (Verona, NJ/Montclair Kimberly Academy) drove in three and crossed home plate four times. TCNJ also capitalized on some generous play by the Falcons, who surrendered six walks, hit three batters, and committed four errors.
 
Junior Dan Koneschusky (Westhampton, NJ/Rancocas Valley) registered his first win in a Lions' uniform, pitching the fifth and sixth innings of the game. Four Lion pitchers tossed two innings each as starter Eric Lewis (Wantagh, NY/W.C. Mepham) was touched for a run before handing the ball over to left-hander Tim Wolf (Pennington, NJ/Hopewell Valley). Sophomore Brian O'Connell (N. Massapequa, NY/Plainedge) tossed the seventh and eighth innings before freshman Benito Gonzalez (Perth Amboy, NJ/Princeton) closed the game out with a scoreless ninth.
 
Like they have done several times in this first portion of the season, TCNJ got out to an early lead and did so in opportunistic fashion. They scored four runs on just one hit, but it was a huge, bases-loaded two-out double by Gabriel. Junior Scott Kelly (West Windsor, NJ/West Windsor-North) walked and stole second base to lead off the inning. Ruzich walked and junior Michael Murphy (Staten Island, NY/Staten Island Tech) reached on an error that scored Kelly. After senior Mike Galeotafiore (Brick, NJ/Chrisitian Brothers Academy) walked to load the bases, Gabriel stepped to the plate with two outs to deliver a clutch, bases clearing double.
 
Messiah crept back into the game, scoring a run in the first and two in the third, but the Lions quickly retaliated with two in the fourth. After Kelly doubled, Ruzich slammed his first home run of the season and ninth of his career. The Falcons pressed with two more runs in the sixth, but TCNJ erupted for eight runs in the seventh inning to put the game away.
 
The Lions sent 13 batters to the plate in the seventh. Gabriel, freshman Anthony Cocuzza (Absecon, NJ/St. Augustine Prep), and senior Ed Zakrzewski (Three Bridges, NJ/Hunterdon Central) stroked back-to-back hits and Murphy and Galeotafiore produced run-scoring singles to highlight the inning.
 
Kelly had two hits and three runs scored in the game. He also swiped his 19^th bag of the season. Galeotafiore collected a pair of hits and drove in two, while freshman Joshua Limon (Easthampton, NJ/Rancocas Valley) added a pinch-hit single.
 
TCNJ is now 8-1 since returning from Florida and return home tomorrow to take on Alvernia University at 3:30 p.m. at George Ackerman Park. The Crusaders own a 14-6-1 overall record and defeated Kean University 7-1 today. The Lions will take on the Cougars this weekend to open New Jersey Athletic Conference play. The first game of that NJAC double-header will start at 11:30 at TCNJ.

Tomorrow's game will also be broadcast live on campus radio at 91.3 FM WTSR.