Ewing, NJ... The 12th ranked College of New Jersey baseball team defeated 2nd ranked Rowan University on Sunday afternoon by a final score of 9-4. The Lions improve their record to 23-6 and 11-3 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference, while the Profs fall to 25-6 and 9-5 in the conference.

TCNJ opened up the scoring in the second inning, when Austin Lindsay (New Egypt, NJ/New Egypt) launched a solo home run to left field, his third of the season. Lindsay has been a consistent run producer this season, as he now has 35 RBIs on the year. Lindsay came up again in the third inning and drove two more runs in with a double to center field. He almost hit his second dinger of the day, as the ball banged off the center field wall about four feet away from clearing the fence. 

Rowan tied it up with three runs in the fourth inning, yet the Lions did not allow the game to stay tied for long. Tommy McCarthy (Allentown, NJ/Allentown) led off with a double to left field, then was advanced by a groundout to the right side from Jacob Simon (Hightstown, NJ/Hightstown). David Cardona III (Elizabeth, NJ/Elizabeth) hit a sac fly to left field, and McCarthy hustled into home and slid just underneath the tag to make it 4-3 TCNJ.

Once again Rowan countered the Lions run with a run of their own to tie it up, yet TCNJ regained the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Danny Borup (Plainsboro, NJ/West Windsor Plainsboro South) led off with a double down the right field line, then Thomas Persichetti (Hamilton, NJ/Notre Dame) drove Borup in with a double of his own, and he hustled into second with a head first slide to beat the incoming throw. A couple of batters later, Persichetti scored on a wild pitch to give the Lions a 6-4 advantage. 

Dylan Crowley (Basking Ridge, NJ/Ridge) threw two huge scoreless innings. He came on in relief of starting pitcher Mike Walley (Yardley, PA/Notre Dame) in the start of the sixth inning. The Profs had a man on first and second with only one out, yet Crowley got out of it with a pair of fly outs. In the seventh, Rowan led off with a hit, yet the runner was quickly erased as second basemen Ryan Fischer (Robbinsville, NJ/Robbinsville) caught a line drive and threw out the runner at first for the double play. 

Nickolas Kleftogiannis (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill West) worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning to keep the score locked up at 6-4. The Lions added three insurance runs in the eighth inning, as Simon beat out a double play ball with the bases loaded to push across the first run. Cardona III then put the ball in play and two runs scored on an error to make it 9-4. Matt Curry (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) slammed the door with a 1-2-3 ninth inning. 

Lindsay went 3-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Walley was the winning pitcher to improve to 3-1 on the year, as he went five innings and allowed four runs while striking out four and allowing no walks. 

The Lions will begin the final week of the regular season with a non conference game on Tuesday, April 24th at home against Arcadia University.