Montclair, NJ… The College of New Jersey softball team (14-17-1, 6-11-1 NJAC) saw their season come to end with a sweep at the hands of Montclair State University (22-16, 9-9 NJAC) Saturday afternoon. The Lions fell 6-1 in the opener before dropping the nightcap 14-6.

TCNJ took an early lead in the opening game, scoring on a Danielle Carey (Maple Shade, NJ / Maple Shade) sacrifice fly in the top of the second. The Red Hawks countered in the bottom of the second, scoring three runs on two hits thanks to a trio of walks in the inning.

Both team's offenses were stymied until the bottom of the fifth when MSU tacked on insurance runs. Again the Red Hawks took advantage of the Lions inability to find the strike zone. Four batters during the inning reached via walk, again scoring three runs on just two hits.

Jess Santelli (Hillsborough, NJ / Hillsborough) had a standout game with a single, triple and stolen base in the first contest.

The Lions got off to a hot start in game two, Fracesca Pugliese (Langhorne, PA / Villa Joseph Marie) led off the game with a single. Two batters later Carey delivered another early RBI with a double to left field. Gaby Bennett (Hamilton, NJ / Steinert) followed with a run-scoring single and TCNJ led 2-0 before MSU had a chance to swing the bats. Carey went 3-for-3 in game two and was 4-for-4 across both games.

The Red Hawks quickly responded, batting around in the bottom of the first. The first five batters who came to the plate reached safely via two singles, a double, and a pair of walks to knot the game at two. Following a strike out, the Red Hawks drew another walk to push across a run and take the lead. After another Lions punch out, MSU used a hit batter, walk, and infield hit to stretch the lead to 6-2.

After back-to-back one-out singles in the third, Elena Radesich delivered a two-run double to extend the advantage to 8-2. After the Lions closed the gap to 8-3 via an error in the top of the fourth, Nerylix Cerda (North Bergen, NJ / High Tech) singled up the middle to score another run for TCNJ.

In the bottom of the fourth, Alana Luna hit an RBI double before Radesich delivered another two-run hit. The Lions closed the gap in the top of the fifth courtesy of a two-run single by Jess McGuire (Stockton, NJ / Hunterdon Central).

After MSU scored a run in the fifth, Radesich scored the second Red Hawk run of the sixth inning for the walk-off victory.