EWING, N.J. – The TCNJ baseball team surrendered a late lead, but the Lions held strong in an 8-7 victory over Gwynedd Mercy in 10 innings. Four Lions had multi-hit games, and Jacob Simon hit his second home run of the season.

TCNJ earned the victory despite allowing five runs in the eighth inning to trail, 7-6. In the bottom of the eighth, Simon led off with a single and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and an error. Joe Oczkowski skied a ball to left, plenty deep enough to score Simon to knot the score at 7-7.

Simon kept the score tied in the top of the ninth. With a runner on second and two outs, Shaun Thomas singled to left, and Brett Swire rounded third and headed for home. Simon came up firing, and his throw beat Swire to the plate by three steps.

The Lions earned the win in the bottom of the 10^th. Gary Otten led off with an infield single, and he ended up at third with two outs after a sacrifice bunt and a fly out. With the bases loaded and Otten representing the winning run, Thomas Persichetti bounced a grounder to short that was misplayed, allowing Otten to score.

TCNJ (2-4) built a 6-1 lead through five innings thanks to timely hitting and a strong effort from freshman starter Ben Amon.

Amon struck out 10 batters through seven innings of work, allowing just two unearned runs. He struck out the side in the top of the first, and he retired the side in order three times.

Otten gave Amon a lead in the bottom of the first with a two-run double. The Lions doubled the lead to 4-0 with Simon's home run over the trees in left in the bottom of the third.

After Gwynedd Mercy got one of those unearned runs in the top of the fifth, TCNJ responded with two more in the home half of the frame. After two infield singles, David Cardona III grounded out to score Persichetti to make it 5-1, and Cameron Cane scored one hitter later on a Gwynedd Mercy error.

Leading, 6-1, Amon allowed another unearned run in the top of the sixth before giving way to the bullpen in the eighth.

Aydon Chavis joined Persichetti, Simon and Otten with two hits each. Nickolas Kleftogiannis allowed just one hit through 2.1 innings of relief to earn the victory.

TCNJ returns to action on Tuesday at Alvernia at 3:30 p.m.