SALISBURY, Md. – The TCNJ baseball team fell in both ends of a doubleheader at No. 7 Salisbury on Sunday afternoon. The Sea Gulls took game one, 6-2, before defeating the Lions, 11-3, in game two.
Cameron Cane hit his first homer of the season in game two.
GAME ONE
TCNJ got on the board in the top half of the first inning.
Avery Epstein walked with one out, and he advanced to second when
Joe Oczkowski reached on an error. A groundout moved the runners ahead, and
Chris Reeder brought Epstein home with a single to right to stake the Lions to a 1-0 lead.
Two errors aided Salisbury in scoring twice in the bottom of the first, and the Sea Gulls extended their lead to 3-1 with sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth.
The Lions trimmed the deficit to 3-2 in the top of the sixth.
Grant Sible walked, and Reeder's infield single put two men on with nobody out.
Jack Felipe grounded out to move the runners ahead, and Cane lined out to right, bringing Sible home on the sacrifice fly.
TCNJ put the tying run on in the top of the seventh with a one-out single by
Chris Cote, but he was stranded there. Salisbury broke the game open in the bottom of the eighth with a two-run triple and a squeeze to push its advantage to 6-2.
Reeder went 2-for-4 to lead the offense.
Tom Kelly pitched well in his first start of the season. He allowed three runs, two earned, on two hits while fanning five over six innings.
GAME TWO
A six-run fifth inning pushed Salisbury to victory in the back half of Sunday's doubleheader. Cane
The Lions tied the score at 1-1 in the top of the second.
Jack Felipe led off the inning with a double to right center, and he advanced to third on a wild pitch. Cane and
Nicholas Marcelli both walked to load the bases, and Felipe scored on a wild pitch to knot the score.
The Sea Gulls took the lead back in the bottom of the second and added two more in the third to lead, 4-1, before TCNJ plated two runs of its own in the top of the fourth. After
Jack Felipe walked, Cane homered to left center to cut the Salisbury lead back to 4-3. Marcelli and
Aydon Chavis reached later in the inning, but a groundout ended the threat with the Lions still trailing.
In the bottom of the fifth, two hit batsmen surrounded a walk to load the bases with just one out. That set the Sea Gulls up for a big inning, thanks to three different two-run singles. By the time the dust settled, Salisbury's lead had expanded to 10-3.
The Lions didn't pack away the bats, though. TCNJ put runners on base in each of its last four trips to the plate. None of those baserunners managed to score, though, as the Lions left two runners on base in three of those innings.
Chavis, Marcelli and
Jack Felipe all had multi-hit games to pace the Lions' attack. Four TCNJ pitchers combined to strike out 11 batters.
Joseph Felipe had five of them in 3.2 innings of work.
TCNJ returns to action with its first home game of the season on Thursday against Stockton in a non-conference game. First pitch at George Ackerman Park is set for 3 p.m.
