EWING, N.J. – The No. 14 TCNJ baseball team scored three runs in the bottom of the second, representing the only runs scored as the Lions defeated Montclair State, 3-0, on Sunday afternoon at George Ackerman Park. Three TCNJ pitchers combined on the third TCNJ shutout victory of the season.
 
TCNJ (17-3) got its runs in the second inning after Gary Otten and Matt Giacose led off the inning with singles. Otten went to third on Giacose's single, and Giacose ended up at second on the throw. Ryan Fischer bounced a grounder to score Otten, and everyone was safe on a defensive obstruction call during a rundown to try to eliminate Giacose.
 
Chris Reeder hit a sacrifice fly to score Giacose to make it 2-0, and Avery Epstein won a long at-bat with an infield single to again put runners at the corners. Danny Borup followed with an RBI single through the left side to make it 3-0, bringing home Fischer.
 
Montclair State (10-12) mustered just three hits, but the Red Hawks still managed to leave 12 men on base. The Red Hawks stranded multiple runners in separate innings, including three of the last four, as TCNJ hurlers pitched into, and out of, trouble.
 
Montclair State stranded eight runners in its last four at-bats, all with the benefit of just one hit. The biggest threat came in the top of the seventh. The Red Hawks loaded the bases with nobody out thanks to back-to-back hit batsman and a walk. Nickolas Kleftogiannis dug himself a hole, but he climbed out of it just as quickly.
 
He went ahead 0-2 on each of the next three hitters, and he got an infield fly for the first out, a strikeout for the second, and a pop out to first to end the frame.
 
A walk and a hit batsman in the ninth brought the tying run to the plate against Dylan Crowley with two outs, but he got the final out on a foul out to right field.

Freshman starter Matt Volpe made a strong case for his third consecutive NJAC Rookie Pitcher of the Week award. He moved to 3-0 on the season after throwing 5.2 innings, allowing no runs and two hits with four strikeouts.
 
Borup and Giacose led the TCNJ offensive attack with two hits apiece. All 13 combined hits in the game were singles.
 
TCNJ moves back out of conference to host Farmingdale State on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.