Winter Haven, Fla. … C.J. Gearhart (Robbinsville, NJ/Robbinsville) delivered a walk-off base hit in the bottom of the 11^th inning as The College of New Jersey defeated St. John Fisher College, 3-2 on Saturday night.
 
The 16^th-ranked Lions (2-0) nearly suffered a heart-breaker as the 9^th-ranked Cardinals erased a 2-0 deficit with two runs in the ninth inning. But TCNJ picked itself off the mat and wrestled away a thrilling win to open the spring break trip in Florida.
 
With the score tied 2-2 in the 11^th, junior Patrick Anderson (Long Valley, NJ/West Morris Catholic) drew a walk to lead off the inning. A ground ball out by Zachary Shindler (Wantagh, NY/Wantagh) moved Anderson to second before senior Alex Christian (Milltown, NJ/Spotswood) singled to advance Anderson to third. Junior transfer Austin Lindsay (New Egypt, NJ/New Egypt) was intentionally walked, and with the bases jammed, Gearhart came through with the game-winner to clear the Lions' bench in celebration.
 
Junior Joe Cirillo (Fairfield, NJ/DePaul Catholic) pitched a gem to put TCNJ in position to win. He tossed eight scoreless innings before parting with runners on base in ninth. Cirillo scattered seven hits and walked none in an outstanding effort.
 
The Lions got on the board early as leadoff hitter Eric Rano (Branchburg, NJ/Somerville) tripled to start the bottom of the first. Anderson chased Rano home with a ground ball out and TCNJ quickly owned a 1-0 lead.
 
Anderson had a hand in the second run when he led off the bottom off the sixth with a base hit to right. He moved to second on a ground out and raced home when Lindsay singled to left-center.
 
In the meantime, Cirillo kept putting up zeroes on the Cardinal offense. It took Sr. John Fisher until the fifth inning to have a player reach second base. A major factor in that was the arm of Gearhart behind the plate. He picked a runner off of first in the opening frame and threw out two runners attempting to steal in the second and third innings, effectively shutting down the Cardinal running game.
 
Leading 2-0 entering the eighth, Cirillo retired the side in order. He went out for the ninth to close the game out, but after getting the first out, Cirillo surrendered a single and a double to put runners at second and third. Junior Matt Curry (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) came on in relief and induced a ground ball out that plated a runner. With two outs, a wild pitch allowed the tying run to score and send the contest into extra innings.
 
Curry got the final out of the inning and then pitch two more scoreless innings in the 10^th and 11^th, giving him his first mound win of the season.
 
Gearhart finished with three hits in the game and a clutch run batted in. Anderson scored twice and senior Ben Varone (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) went 2-for-4.
 
The Lions are back on the diamond tomorrow when they face University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse at 1:30 p.m. at Lake Myrtle.