Clermont, FL… The College New Jersey softball team posted a pair of victories on Sunday as the Lions won those games in two different fashions.
 
The day started with a 7-4 win over UMass-Boston with all seven of those runs coming in one inning. The next win came in dramatic fashion as the Lions rallied for two runs in the last of the seventh and then received a walk-off single by freshman Madison Levine (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) for a 5-4 triumph over Western Connecticut State University.
 
The two wins put the Lions at 4-2 on the season and they have won three of the four games so far on their spring trip.
 
TCNJ is idle until Tuesday, March 17 when they face Hope College at 9 a.m. and then Plymouth State University at 11 a.m.
 
TCNJ 7, UMass-Boston 4
Each team used big innings to account for all of the scoring, but it was a seven-run second inning that propelled the Lions to the win.
 
With the game scoreless in the top of the second, TCNJ opened the scoring with a two-run double by junior Kristen Fitzsimmons (Sayreville, NJ/Sayreville War Memorial). Classmate Jamie Purcell (Nutley/Mt. St. Dominic Academy) made it 3-0 a couple batters later as she singled in a run.
 
Junior Deanna Utter (Byram, NJ/Lenape Valley Regional) produced a run the hard way as she was hit by a pitch with the bases load, while sophomore Colleen Phelan (Tinton Falls, NJ/Monmouth Regional) stayed hot at the plate during the spring trip with a three-run double. Those last three runs pushed TCNJ's lead to 7-0.
 
The Beacons responded with four runs in the fourth, but freshman pitcher Sam Platt (Cedar Grove, NJ/Mt. St. Dominic Academy) entered the game and hurdled 3.2 innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win.
 
The Lions had a season-high 12 hits in the game with five different players each getting two hits. That group included Fitzsimmons, Phelan, freshman Bria Bartsch (Montville, NJ/Mt. St. Dominic Academy), Levine and freshman Jess Stevenson (Belmar, NJ/Red Bank Regional).
 
TCNJ 5, Western Connecticut State University 4 (8 innings)
In extra innings, each team starts with a runner on second base as part of the international tiebreaker rule, but the Colonials never got a chance to get that run home as TCNJ turned a double play to get out of the top of the eighth inning.
 
Levine then delivered the winning hit in their half of the inning. Sophomore Rachel Cipolla (Haddonfield, NJ/Haddonfield) scored the winning run after starting the inning on second base.
 
Junior Katie Hourihan (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) tossed all eight innings to get the win as she allowed only one earned run.
 
Levine and Phelan each boasted their second two-hit game of the day, while Purcell added a pair of hits as well.
 
The Lions trailed by a run heading into the last of the third inning, but they erased that deficit and moved into the lead. Purcell tied things up scoring Bartsch with a base hit, while Phelan drove in another run with a single.
 
The Colonials scored three times in the top of the sixth, but TCNJ came back in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings. Purcell singled and then scored on a triple by Phelan to make it a one-run game. Phelan then raced home on a base hit by Stevenson to knot the game at 4-4 and set up Levine's walk-off hit an inning later.