Clermont, FL… The College New Jersey softball team finished off its annual spring trip with two more victories as the Lions head home having won six of the eight games played in the Sunshine State. TCNJ posted a 9-4 win against Utica College on Thursday and then pushed their modest win streak to three by doubling up McDaniel College 6-3.
 
The two wins put the Lions at 7-3 on the season. Next up for the Lions is the home opener against Moravian College on Tuesday, March 24 at Dr. June Walker Field. The first game of the doubleheader is set for 3 p.m.
 
TCNJ 9, Utica College 4   
TCNJ needed only one batter to take the lead in the bottom of the first as freshman Bria Bartsch (Montville, NJ/Mt. St. Dominic Academy) led off with a triple and scored on a throwing error.
 
The Lions took control of the game in the last of the third as they scored four times. Junior Jamie Purcell (Nutley, NJ/Mt. St. Dominic Academy) hit a sacrifice fly, while junior Deanna Utter (Byram, NJ/Lenape Valley Regional) squeezed in a second. After sophomore Colleen Phelan (Tinton Falls, NJ/Monmouth Regional) scored on an error, sophomore Olivia Fahr (Stewartsville, NJ/Phillipsburg) singled home freshman Jess Stevenson (Belmar, NJ/Red Bank Regional) to extend the lead to 5-0.
 
A heads up play by Utter in the fourth inning made it a 6-0 game, advancing home from third base when the Pioneers occupied with a runner at first base.
 
Utica College closed the game with a big sixth inning, scoring four times. TCNJ, however, came right back in its half of the inning.  Utter tripled to bring home a pair of runs and Phelan made it 9-4 with a successful squeeze attempt that scored Utter.
 
Utter finished the game driving in three runs on a pair of hits. Bartsch continued her hot start of the season with her fourth multi-hit game of the spring. She went 3-for-4 and scored twice. Sophomore Steph Vuono (Voorhees, NJ/Eastern) also had two hits in the win.
 
Junior Katie Hourihan (Neptune, NJ/Neptune) added her third win of the season with the complete game and has already established a new career high in wins.
 
TCNJ 6, McDaniel College 3
Just like the opening game of the day, the Lions scored early by getting a run in the opening inning. Freshman Madison Levine (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) drew a walk and then raced home a double by Utter for a 1-0 edge.
 
The Green Terror tied the game in the bottom half of the inning, but the Lions came right back in the second with another run. This time Vuono scored on a fielder's choice by Bartsch.
 
TCNJ added two more runs on the third with Phelan driving in the first with a double and later scoring on a hit by Stevenson. Those two runs made it a 4-1 game.
 
Both teams scored twice in the seventh inning, with the Lions getting their runs in the top of the inning for a 6-1 lead. Vuono, who had two hits in the game, drove in both of those runs with a double to center field.
 
McDaniel scored a pair of unearned runs in the latter half of the inning, but it wasn't enough as TCNJ pitcher Ashtin Helmer (Succasunna, NJ/Roxbury) closed the door.
 
Helmer finished with a complete game for the Lions as she boasted her record to 2-1. She allowed only four hits and none of the three runs to cross the plate were earned.