Montclair, NJ... The College of New Jersey softball team challenged top-ranked Montclair State University in both ends of a doubleheader, but the host Red Hawks came away with a pair of extra-inning wins on Saturday. Montclair State won both games by identical 2-1 scores, with the first game going nine innings and the second eight.
 
The two wins kept the Red Hawks undefeated at 10-0 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference and 26-0 overall. The 24^th-ranked Lions lost in conference play for the first time, falling to 8-2 in league play and 21-7 overall.
 
The Lions return home to face another ranked opponent on Tuesday, April 16 as 11^th-ranked Rowan University visits Dr. June Walker Field for a conference doubleheader. The opening game is at 3 p.m.
 
Game 1
Montclair State 2, TCNJ 1 (9 innings)
The Lions and Red hawks locked up in a pitching duel in the opener as the teams went scoreless into the ninth inning.
 
TCNJ broke the scoreless deadlock in the top half of the inning as pinch-runner Corinne Minicozzi (Hawthorne, NJ/Hawthorne), who started the inning on second base via the tiebreaker rule, scored on a double by freshman Jamie Purcell (Nutley, NJ/Mount St. Dominic Academy).
 
Montclair State then got a one-out two-run homer from Dana Amato (Hillsdale, NJ/Pascack Valley) to end the game.
 
Freshman Ashtin Helmer (Succasunna, NJ/Roxbury) suffered her first loss of the season (13-1), despite being very effective on the mound. She went 8.1 innings and yielded only three hits on the two runs, with only one of them being earned. Helmer also struck out seven.
 
The Lions had some success against Red Hawk pitcher Alex Hill (Parsippany, NJ/Parsippany Hills) as they collected eight hits. Junior Lindsay Williams (Roxbury, NJ/Roxbury) finished 3-for-4 for TCNJ, while Purcell added a pair of hits.
 
TCNJ's best chance to score prior to extra innings came in the sixth when junior Nicole Brodbeck (Atco, NJ/Hammonton) and classmate Kristen Lake (Whitehouse Station, NJ/Hunterdon Central) followed with a double putting two runners in scoring position with two outs, but Hill was able to get out of the jam.
 
Game 2
Montclair State 2, TCNJ 1 (8 innings)
Pitching again was the focal point in the second game with Hill returning to the mound for the Red Hawks and junior Alex Carisone (Branchburg, NJ/Rutgers Prep) got the starting nod for the Lions.
 
The game was scoreless through five innings before both teams broke through for a run in the sixth. Purcell again came through with a clutch hit for TCNJ as her single plated Minicozzi for a 1-0 lead.
 
Montclair State got the run right back in the bottom half of the inning on run-scoring single by Tara Petrucelli (Nutley, NJ/Nutley).
 
The teams started with a runner on second in the eighth inning and the Red Hawks prevented TCNJ's runner from reaching home, while in the bottom half of the inning Jamie Paulino (Linden, NJ/Linden) hit a sacrifice fly to end the game.
 
Carisone allowed only one earned run in 7.1 innings and finished with six strikeouts and didn't issue a walk.
 
For the second straight game, Purcell finished with two hits, and senior Michelle Casale (Middlesex, NJ/Middlesex) also picked up a pair of base hits.