Box Score 1 | Box Score 2


Ewing, NJ... The College of New Jersey softball team dropped a pair of New Jersey Athletic Conference games to 21^st-ranked Montclair State University on Friday afternoon.
 
The Lions (15-9, 4-2) dropped a heartbreaker in the opening game, falling 5-4 in eight innings before the Red Hawks (24-1, 6-0) erupted on offense to win the back-end game 8-0. MSU has now won 11 straight games.
 
Both teams entered the series unbeaten in conference play and TCNJ was a strike away from victory in the opener. But a pinch-hit home run off the bat of Melany Zeller (Bloomfield, NJ/Bloomfield) tied the game 3-3 and sent it into extra innings, where the Red Haws came out on top.
 
 
Game 1
Montclair State 5, TCNJ 4 (8 innings)
The Red Hawks scored a pair of runs in the top of the eighth innings and then held off the hosts in the bottom of the innings to win their ninth straight game.
 
With the team using the international tiebreaker of starting extra innings with a runner on second, MSU received an RBI double from Jamie Paulino (Linden, NJ/Linden) and a run-scoring single from Alex Hill (Parsippany, NJ/Parsippany Hills) to grab a 5-3 lead.
 
The Lions scored one those runs in the bottom of the inning as Crystal Lee (Rockaway, NJ/Morris Knolls) scored on a base hit by Liz Huttner (Princeton Junction, NJ/West Windsor-Plainsboro South), but that was the lone run they would score as they saw their six-game winning streak come to an end.
 
The Red Hawks scored the game's opening run in the second inning as Katie Muglia (South Plainfield, NJ/South Plainfield) singled home Alisha Cumberton (Toms River, NJ/Toms River East) to make it 1-0.
 
TCNJ tied the game in the last of the third as Michelle Casale (Middlesex, NJ/Middlesex) doubled to left and scored one batter later as Kelly Hommen (Ridgewood, NJ/Ridgewood) lofted a RBI double to right field.
 
Hill who was the starting pitcher for the Red Hawks, helped her own cause with a solo home run putting the visitors in front 2-1.
 
The Lions once again erased that deficit, this time scoring a pair of runs in the fifth for their first lead of the game. Kristen Lake (Readington, NJ/Hunterdon Central) got the inning started with a one-out double to right-center field and then raced home on a single by Casale. Casale wasn't on base long as Hommen drilled her second double of the game driving in the go-ahead run making it 3-2.
 
The Red Hawks were down to their final out in the seventh when they tied the game on a pinch-hit homer to center by Melany Zeller (Bloomfield, NJ/Bloomfield) sending the game into extra innings.  
 
Game 2
Montclair State 8  TCNJ 0 (5 innings)
 
Montclair State jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first, plating three runners before TCNJ was able to record an out.  Lions' freshman pitcher Alex Carisone (Branchburg, NJ/Rutgers Prep) was able to work out of a bases loaded ham, inducing a 5-2-3 double play and a pop-up to first to keep the game in reach.
 
The Lions has multiple runners on base in the second and third innings, but were unable to capitalize. The Red Hawks tacked on an unearned run in the fourth before exploding for four runs in the fifth. Catcher Heather Bergman (Berkeley Heights, NJ/Governor Livingston) had the big blow, a two-run double to left-center field.
 
Junior Jaime Miller (Spotswood, NJ/St. John Vianney) tossed a complete-game shutout for her ninth win of the season. She surrendered just two hits and struck out one.
 
Lee and junior Ashley Sogluizzo (Middletown, NJ/Middletown South) each had a hit in the game for TCNJ.
 
The Lions are idle until Tuesday, April 10 when they resume conference play with a home doubleheader against Richard Stockton, while the Red Hawks are also in action playing a pair of games at Rutgers-Newark.