ASHLAND, Va. – TCNJ catcher David Cardona III recorded his 100^th career hit on Sunday, but the TCNJ baseball team fell to No. 17 Randolph-Macon, 5-4, in 12 innings. It appeared as though Cardona's milestone hit would give the Lions their first victory of the season, as it drove home the go-ahead run in the top of the 12^th.

Thomas Persichetti led off the 12^th inning with an infield single to shortstop, his third hit of the day. Avery Epstein bunted him to second, and Cardona lined a single to right to easily bring him home.

In the bottom of the 12^th, Randolph-Macon used a leadoff single to spark a rally to tie, and eventually win, the game. A hit batsman followed the bloop single to right, and a sacrifice bunt put the tying run at third and the winning run at second. A sacrifice fly tied the score at 4-4, and back-to-back walks loaded the bases.

With no room on the base paths, another hit-by-pitch forced home the winning run from third.

The offenses took awhile to get going, and it was TCNJ who opened the scoring in the top of the sixth. Cardona recorded his first RBI of the day when he grounded to short to score Epstein, who was at third after leading off the inning with a triple.

Tom Kelly was solid on the hill for the Lions, allowing just four hits through his first six innings of work. In the bottom of the seventh, though, Randolph-Macon scratched out a run without the benefit of a hit. The inning included a hit batsman, a sacrifice bunt, a wild pitch, a passed ball and a sacrifice fly to tie the score at 1-1.

TCNJ came back to take the lead in the eighth. Jacob Simon homered to make it 2-1, and Joe Oczkowski singled home Gary Otten to push the lead to 3-1. Randolph-Macon came back with a run in the eighth inning and an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth to force the game into extras.

In the bottom of the 10^th, RMC put the first two runners on base and looked to sacrifice them to second and third. Anticipating the bunt, Nick Francisco charged hard from his second-base position before the pitch. He fielded, spun, and threw to third to nail the lead runner. After a fly out for the second out and a hit batsman to load the bases, Nickolas Kleftogiannis induced another fly out to end the threat.

Kelly got a no-decision after pitching eight solid innings, allowing just two runs on seven hits while striking out five.

Persichetti, Simon and Oczkowski all had three hits apiece to pace the TCNJ offense. Kleftogiannis allowed just the unearned run in the ninth in his three innings of work.

TCNJ returns to action on Tuesday at Ursinus at 3 p.m.