LAKELAND, Fla. – The TCNJ baseball team used strong relief pitching and a timely home run to knock off Benedictine (Ill.) in the Lions' first game at the RussMatt Invitational on Saturday afternoon at Henley Field. The Lions won, 7-5.
 
Andrew Rowan pitched 3.1 innings in middle relief to earn the victory. He allowed just a hit and walk while striking out two. Dylan Crowley followed Rowan with 1.2 innings of hitless relief to pick up the save.
 
TCNJ (2-0) jumped ahead of Benedictine with two runs in the first inning and two more in the third. Singles in the first inning from David Cardona III and Tommy McCarthy each plated a run. Cardona and McCarthy were two of the three Lions with multiple hits. McCarthy and Gary Otten each had three.
 
After Benedictine got a run back in the top of the second, Cameron Cane led off the bottom of the third with a walk. He later scored after two outs on one of Otten's hits. Matt Giacose followed, and he reached via a throwing error. That allowed Jacob Simon to score to make it 4-1.
 
Benedictine (2-4) scored four runs in the top of the fourth to take a 5-4 lead. The Eagles had five hits, most well-placed grounders through the infield. Their luck ran out, though, when another ground ball with two aboard and one out turned into a 6-4-3 double play. That inning ended starter Tim Schumacher's day. He pitched better than the five runs (four earned) that he allowed.
 
Rowan's relief kept the Lions to within a run, and TCNJ cashed in during the bottom of the sixth. Otten led off the inning with a single, and Thomas Persichetti gave TCNJ the lead with a two-run shot to left with two outs to make it 6-5. After hitting just one home run through the first two years of his collegiate career, Persichetti now has two home runs in the Lions' first two games of 2019.
 
The Lions added an insurance run in the seventh. Cane led off with a double, and McCarthy walked to put two men on. Jacob Simon's sacrifice attempt was bunted so well that he ended up with a single to load the bases.  Ryan Fischer lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to push the seventh run across.
 
TCNJ returns to action tomorrow at the RussMatt Invitational for its first game against a ranked opponent in 2019. The Lions will face No. 7 Concordia-Chicago at 11:30 a.m.