UNION, N.J. – The TCNJ baseball team had its back against the wall against No. 4 Rowan on Sunday in the second round of the NJAC Tournament at Kean. After losing to another ranked team in No. 25 Montclair State on Tuesday in the first round, the Lions were a loss away from seeing their season come to an end. TCNJ responded in a big way, though, shutting out the Profs, 9-0, to advance in the tournament.
 
The Lions packed all nine runs into two innings, and the big bops came from Ryan Goodall. He went 2-for-5 with two home runs and seven RBIs. Chris Cote was 4-for-4 with a double. Chris Reeder had two hits, and Michael Schumacher added a double.
 
The game remained scoreless until the fifth inning, as TCNJ starting pitcher Ben Amon held the powerful Rowan offense in check. Amon gave up just two hits through the first five Rowan at-bats, and that allowed the Lions to take the lead in the bottom of the fifth.
 
Jack Haynes put the Lions on the board with an RBI single to score Mike Lagravenis after one out. Reeder followed with a single to put two men on, and that brought Goodall to the plate. He ripped a 1-1 pitch over the wall in left center to expand the TCNJ lead to 4-0.
 
Amon stranded two men in each of Rowan's at-bats in the sixth and the seventh innings, and the Lions put the game away in the home half of the seventh.
 
The Lions used a pair of defensive errors on Rowan and a hit-batsman to Reeder to load the bases with nobody out. Up came Goodall, and this time he ripped his second grand slam of the season to double the TCNJ lead to 8-0.
 
The Lions tacked on another run with consecutive singles from Cote, Joe Oczkowski and Andrew Fernandez to make it 9-0.
 
Chris Cassini worked two scoreless innings to close the game, sending the Lions into the tournament's third round. 

TCNJ will continue its quest for an NJAC title on Monday at 3:30 against No. 23 Kean, the tournament host.