Orlando, FL... The College of New Jersey softball team collected two more wins on Wednesday as the Lions pushed their modest winning streak in Florida to four games. TCNJ started the day with an 8-0 win in five innings over St. Mary's (MN) University and then got past Neumann University, 9-4.
 
TCNJ (5-1) is idle on Thursday before returning to the field on Friday for two more games. The first game on Friday is against Elizabethtown College with the second contest against John Carroll University. The game with Elizabethtown will be the second against the Blue Jays on the trip as TCNJ will get a chance to avenge its only defeat so far.
 
TCNJ 8,
St. Mary's (MN) University 0
Senior pitcher Lauren Fitzsimmons (Bridgewater, NJ/Bridgewater-Raritan) continued to dominate on the southern trip as she turned in her third straight complete-game shutout against Cardinals. She allowed only one hit over five innings and struck out 10.
 
In three games so far this season, Fitzsimmons has not allowed a run in 19 innings and has allowed a mere four hits in that span. She has also recorded 24 strike outs against only a pair of walks.
 
Sophomore Nicole Brodbeck (Atco, NJ/Hammonton) provided the Lions with what proved to be the winning run in the bottom of the first as she doubled in senior Crystal Lee (Rockaway, NJ/Morris Knolls).
 
TCNJ added four runs in the second with and Kelly Hommen (Ridgewood, NJ/Ridgewood) forcing in the first of those runs with a base-loaded walk, while Brodbeck again delivered at the plate with a two-run single. The Lions added another run in the inning increasing their advantage to 5-1.
 
In the third, Ashley Sogluizzo (Middletown, NJ/Middletown South) plated a run with a base hit, while she drove in another in the fifth along with Hommen making the final 8-0.
 
Brodbeck was a perfect 3-for-3 from the plate and drove in three runs, while senior Michelle Kent (Sparta, NJ/Pope John) recorded a pair of hits and scored twice.
 
TCNJ 9, Neumann University 4   
The Lions used a pair of four-run innings to defeat Neumann for their fourth straight win. TCNJ scored four times in the top of the first with Lee leading off the game with a triple and scoring on a base hit by Sogluizzo. Brodbeck and Liz Huttner (Princeton Junction, NJ/West Windsor-Plainsboro South) added RBI in the inning as well.
 
Neumann got one of the runs back in its half of the inning, but TCNJ struck four more times in the fifth extending their advantage to 8-1. Kelly Hommen (Ridgewood, NJ/Ridgewood) had a big hit in the inning with a run-scoring double and Brodbeck also plated a run with a hit.
 
The Knights trimmed two runs off of that deficit in the bottom half of the inning and then both teams scored in the seventh making the final 9-4.
 
Sophomore pitcher Alex Carisone (Branchburg, NJ/Rutgers Prep) won her second straight decision throwing all seven innings. Two of the four runs she allowed were unearned and she recorded five strike outs.
 
TCNJ had a balanced attack at the plate as Lee, Hommen, Brodbeck, and Kristen Lake (Readington, NJ/Hunterdon Central) all finished with two hits apiece.