Clermont, FL... After having their original season-opening doubleheader postponed due to weather, The College of New Jersey softball team finally got a chance to take the field in sunny Florida and showed proved it was worth the wait as the Lions notched a pair of wins on Sunday.
 
TCNJ started with a 12-4 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in six innings and then came right back to edge the University of Rochester by the score of 5-4.
 
The Lions are back on the field tomorrow, March 11 for two more games taking on Denison University at 9 a.m. and then Keene State College at 11 a.m.
 
TCNJ 12, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 4
Junior pitcher Alex Carisone (Branchburg, NJ/Rutgers Prep) benefitted from a potent offense that collected 12 runs on 12 hits to earn the team's first win of the season. Carisone
 
TCNJ used a five-run third inning to break a 2-2 tied and tacked on two more in the fourth and three in the sixth to close out the season-opening win.
 
Freshman Deanna Utter (Byram, NJ/Lenape Valley) had a big collegiate debut going 3-for-4 with a pair of runs batted in and she also scored twice. Junior Nicole Brodbeck (Atco, NJ/Hammonton) had two hits and drove in pair, while senior Ashley Sogluizzo (Middletown, NJ/Middletown South) was busy on the bases scoring three times.
 
TCNJ 5, University of Rochester 4
Freshman pitcher Ashtin Helmer (Succasunna, NJ/Roxbury) picked up a win in her first career start firing a complete game against the Yellowjackets. She allowed only two earned runs on five hits and finished with 10 strikeouts.
 
The teams were tied 1-1 before the Lions scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth, but Rochester got those runs right back in the top of the sixth.
 
Junior Kelly Hommen (Ridgewood, NJ/Ridgewood) accounted for the deciding run in the last of the sixth reaching base with a single and later scoring on an error.
 
Helmer slammed the door on the Yellowjackets in the seventh, striking out the first two batters of the inning and the getting the third out on a bouncer back to the mound.
 
Hommen had a pair of hits in the win.