Orlando, FL... The College of New Jersey softball team split earned a pair of wins on Monday as the Lions continued its spring trip in Florida. TCNJ opened with a 3-0 shutout over Moravian College and then outlasted Simmons College in nine innings.
 
TCNJ (3-1) has an off day on Tuesday, before returning to the field on Wednesday facing Saint Mary's (MN) University and Neumann University.
 
TCNJ 3, Moravian College 0
Senior Lauren Fitzsimmons (Bridgewater, NJ/Bridgewater-Raritan) tossed fired her second straight shutout as she moved her individual record to 2-0 and has not allowed a run in 14 innings this season. She allowed just the two hits and recorded five strike outs.
 
The Lions opened the scoring in the second inning as Nicole Brodbeck (Atco, NJ/Hammonton) singled and scored on a ground out with Kristen Lake (Readington, NJ/Hunterdon Central) getting the run batted in.
 
In the fourth, Brodbeck again found her way around the bases. She led off the inning with a single and scored on a Moravian error making it a 2-0 game.
 
Brodbeck rounded out the scoring in the sixth as she reached on an error and later scored on a single by Lake.
 
TCNJ 7, Simmons College 4 (9 innings)
The Lions battled back from different deficits with the third one being erased in the sixth inning as junior Liz Huttner (Princeton Junction, NJ/West Windsor-Plainsboro South) blasted a two-run homer scoring Brodbeck. That tied the game at 3-3 and set up extra innings.
 
In the eighth, the teams used the international tiebreaker starting with a runner on second base and Kelly Hommen (Ridgewood, NJ/Ridgewood) started there for the Lions and came around to score on a Simmons error.
 
The Sharks got that run back in the bottom of the inning sending the game into the ninth.
 
In the top of the ninth, Michelle Kent (Sparta, NJ/Pope John) started the inning at second for TCNJ and after being sacrificed to third, scored on a passed ball. The Lions added two more runs as Michelle Casale (Middlesex, NJ/Middlesex) scored on a fielder's choice and Hommen plated Crystal Lee (Rockaway, NJ/Morris Knolls) with a suicide bunt making it a 7-4 TCNJ lead.
 
Sophomore pitcher Alex Carisone (Branchburg, NJ/Rutgers Prep) closed out her complete-game effort in the bottom of the inning preventing Simmons from scoring as she struck out the game's final batter with the bases loaded.
 
The win was Carisone's first on the young season as she finished with a career-high 14 strikeouts.
 
At the plate, Lake and Lee each had two hits for the Lions, while Huttner and Ashley Sogluizzo (Middletown, NJ/Middletown South) each drove in a pair.