MONTCLAIR, N.J. – A heartbreaking walk-off loss in the opener of Saturday's road trip to Montclair State was the precursor to a tough day for the TCNJ baseball team, which came home empty-handed from an NJAC twin bill.
Despite a yeoman's effort from
Ben Amon in Game 1, the Lions were undone by defensive miscues and suffered a hard-luck 4-3 defeat before conceding a 9-3 decision in the nightcap.
Game 1: Montclair State 4, TCNJ 3
The opener was in large part a fantastic pitchers' duel between Amon and the Red Hawks' Patrick Cuccurullo, who held the Lions scoreless for six sparkling innings.
Still, Amon kept TCNJ in close range throughout, and the Lions rewarded him with a lead thanks to a two-run top of the eighth.
Chris Reeder drew a leadoff walk and went to second on a sacrifice by
Chris Cote, then advanced to third on a wild pitch before
Joe Oczkowski brought him home with a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1-1.
After Goodall drew a two-out walk,
Andrew Fernandez brought him home with a double to center, and all of a sudden TCNJ was on top.
Amon pitched a scoreless eighth before the Lions put up another run in the top of the ninth, when
Jack Haynes singled and came all the way home to score on a two-out outfield error.
TCNJ returned the favor in the bottom half, allowing the leadoff man to reach third on an outfield miscue. Amon buckled down to retire the next batter on an RBI groundout, then got a strikeout for the second out.
His defense let him down again, though, as another error by the outfield allowed the next hitter to get to third. Amon was relieved by
Alec Schwartz after a walk, but Schwartz walked the next batter to load the bases. He worked ahead to a 1-2 count on Peter Cosentino, but the Montclair State first baseman dropped a base hit down the left-field line to score two and walk it off.
Fernandez had another two-hit game and an RBI for the Lions, but Amon was the story of the opener. The right-hander twirled 8.2 frames of marvelous pitching, striking out nine to just two walks. He surrendered just one earned run but was tagged for four total in suffering a tough-luck loss.
Game 2: Montclair State 9, TCNJ 3
The Lions got out to a quick lead in the nightcap as
Michael Schumacher led off with a double and scored on an RBI single by Cote.
The lead held up until the third, when a trio of errors paved the way for a five-run outburst by the Red Hawks. One of those miscues came with two outs and allowed two extra runs to score.
Cote added another RBI single in the fifth, but Montclair State countered with a single run of its own in the bottom half to restore a four-run advantage.
Cote finished 3-for-4 for the contest, while Schumacher was 2-for-5 with a run scored from the leadoff spot. They were the only two Lions to record a hit until the eighth, when
Joey Cruciata's two-out single put runners on first and second.
Chris Cassini struck out four in scoreless sixth and seventh innings before running into trouble in the eighth, when an error helped the Red Hawks put up another crooked number courtesy of a two-run triple by Cosentino and a sacrifice fly.
TCNJ made things interesting in the ninth, loading the bases with no outs. Oczkowski re-loaded them with an RBI single to make it 9-3, but the next three Lions struck out to end the game.
Jordan Gray was charged with six runs over 5.0 innings, but only half were earned. He walked four and struck out five.
TCNJ heads to Rowan on Monday for the make-up of Thursday's rain-out.
