Galloway, NJ... Backed by a pair of freshmen pitchers, The College of New Jersey softball team earned a big doubleheader sweep at Richard Stockton College of Tuesday with the Lions winning 1-0 and 7-2.
 
Pitcher Ashtin Helmer (Succasunna, NJ/Roxbury) tossed a one-hit shutout in the opener, while classmate Nicole Hroncich (Ridgewood, NJ/Ridgewood) limited the Ospreys to only three hits and one earned run to take both ends of the doubleheader.
 
The win kept the Lions unbeaten in New Jersey Athletic Conference at 4-0, with all four of those wins coming on the road. Overall, TCNJ is 16-4. The two losses dropped the Ospreys to 13-5 and 0-4 in the conference.
 
TCNJ has a pair of non-conference games on Thursday, April 4, heading to Messiah College to face the Falcons with the opening game of the doubleheader starting at 3 p.m.
 
Game 1
TCNJ 1, Richard Stockton 0
The Lions scored the game's only run in their final at bat as senior Liz Huttner (Princeton Junction, NJ/West Windsor-Plainsboro South) hit a sacrifice fly to center field scoring junior Kristen Lake (Whitehouse Station, NJ/Hunterdon Central).
 
Helmer capped off her fourth shutout of the season retiring the Ospreys in order in the bottom of the seventh. She didn't allow a hit for the first 5.2 innings finished with four strikeouts to improve to 8-0 on the season.
 
Freshmen Deanna Utter (Byram, NJ/Lenape Valley) and Christine Desiderio (Babylon, NY/Babylon) each had hits for TCNJ.
 
Game 2
TCNJ 7, Richard Stockton 2
TCNJ fell behind by a pair of runs in the second game, but then scored seven straight runs to complete the sweep and extend the team's winning streak to six.
 
The Ospreys scored single runs in the second and third, but the Lions began their comeback in the fourth as Utter singled home Corinne Minicozzi (Hawthorne, NJ/Hawthorne), cutting the deficit in half.
 
In the fifth, TCNJ tied the game when Ashley Sogluizzo (Middletown, NJ/Middletown South) got aboard with a base hit and later scored on a Richard Stockton error.
 
The Lions took the lead for the first time in the sixth and then added some breathing room scoring three times in the inning. Senior Kelly Hommen (Ridgewood, NJ/Ridgewood) got the inning started with a double and scored on an error, while Lake and freshman Jamie Purcell (Nutley, NJ/Mount St. Dominic Academy) each produced runs with ground outs.
 
TCNJ padded its lead in the seventh with two more runs with Desiderio scoring on another error and Nicole Brodbeck (Atco, NJ/Hammonton) drove in a run with a ground out.
 
Hroncich went the distance for her fifth win of the season, as she struck out three.
 
Hommen and Huttner both finished with two hits.