AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The TCNJ baseball team concluded its week at the RussMatt Invitational with its second game this week against North Park. The Lions fell to North Park, 5-3.

TCNJ starting pitcher Jackson Malouf faced traffic on the bases in the first two innings thanks to three TCNJ defensive miscues, but he worked his way through it. In the second inning, North Park had two runners on thanks to two of the errors, but Malouf got a fielder's choice and a slick play at second from Mike Lagravenis to end the threat.

The Lions' offense rewarded Malouf in the bottom of the fourth. Jack Haynes walked and went to second on a wild pitch. With two outs, Chris Reeder laced a double down the third-base line, allowing Haynes to score easily to give TCNJ a 1-0 lead.

North Park finally registered its first hit in the top of the fifth, a single through the left side. North Park then tied the game with the very next hitter with a double down the third base line of their own.

The back-and-forth continued in TCNJ's half of the fifth inning, getting another run. Zach Hochheiser led off the inning with a single, and he moved to second on Michael Schumacher's sacrifice bunt. After a second out, Lagravenis lofted a base hit into shallow right field. That gave TCNJ a 2-1 lead.

North Park took its first lead of the game with two runs in the top of the sixth. Two more TCNJ errors contributed to the pair of unearned runs, and a hit-by-pitch pushed the go-ahead run across to make it 3-2 North Park.

After Haynes led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk, it looked like the Lions would get into business with another ball down the third base line. This time, though, NPU third baseman Jim Zay made a great diving catch on a Ryan Goodall liner. TCNJ didn't score in the frame.

North Park added two more runs in the top of the seventh to take a 5-2 lead, but TCNJ threatened to get right back into it in the home half of the inning. Hochheiser reached on an error, and Joey Cruciata had a pinch hit single to move Hochheiser to third.

Lagravenis followed with an infield single to score Hochheiser, and the runners ended up at second and third on a throwing error on the play. But with two outs and the tying run in scoring position, a ground out to second kept the score at 5-3 North Park.

In the bottom of the ninth, TCNJ put two men on after Schumacher's single through the left side. Cruciata battled with a long at-bat, but he sliced a fly to left that was corralled for the second out. Lagravenis grounded out to second base to end the game, but he did pace the TCNJ offense with two hits.

Malouf allowed just one earned run in 5.2 innings while fanning four.

TCNJ returns to George Ackerman Park on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. against Widener.