NEWARK, N.J.- The TCNJ baseball team today played to a split with the Rutgers-Newark Scarlet Raiders, winning the first 8-5 and losing the second game 9-1.
 
GAME 1- TCNJ 8, Rutgers-Newark 5:
 
Senior right-hander Ben Amon was great on the mound in game one, pitching seven and two-thirds innings. In his outing, he gave up three runs on eight hits, eight strikeouts and two walks.
 
TCNJ struck first in game one, scoring a run in each of the first two innings. The first run came off a Chris Reeder sac-fly to left field which scored Justin Marcario. Marcario led the game off with a single to right, stole second and took third on a throwing error by the catcher.
 
In the second, a sacrifice fly gave the Lions their second run of the game. Jack O'Donnell sent a fly ball to right field with one out to score Sebastian JnoBaptiste.
 
TCNJ found no luck in the third or the fourth while the Scarlet Raiders got their first run on the board to cut the Lion lead in half. The one run came on three hits in the bottom of the fourth inning.
 
The Lions put up a crooked number in the fifth, scoring four runs on five hits and no errors. Marcario had his second hit of the game, this time a triple down the left field line. A Ryan Goodall walk brought up Reeder who singled to center to score Goodall.
 
Michael Doran, Michael Schumacher and Zach Weiner followed this RBI single up with one of their own, scoring Goodall, Reeder and Doran to bring the lead to five.
 
In the eighth, Weiner kept his strong game going with a leadoff walk. After stealing second, O'Donnell punched a single up the middle to score Weiner and expand the Lion lead to six.
 
In the bottom half of the eighth, the Scarlet Raiders tacked on two more runs on two hits and two errors to cut the lead back to four.
 
With two outs in the eighth inning, Ethan Earley came in to replace Amon on the bump and threw the remaining 1.1 innings for the Lions.
 
In the top of the ninth, Michael Schumacher took third and home on a wild pitch and passed ball after getting on with a two out double to bring the score to 8-4 TCNJ.
 
Rutgers-Newark added on one more run in the bottom of the ninth but could not close the gap any further as the Lions took game one.
 
GAME 2-Rutgers-Newark 9, TCNJ 1:
 
The bats went cold for the Lions in game two as they only amassed three hits in the contest. There were opportunities to cut into the lead as Rutgers-Newark continued to score, but the Lions were not able to capitalize.
 
Jackson Malouf got the start for the Lions and put yet another strong effort on the mound. The sophomore southpaw went the first six innings and gave up three runs on six hits, five strikeouts and four walks.
 
The Scarlet Raiders got on the scoreboard first in the bottom half of the third inning on one hit and no errors to take a 1-0 lead early on.
The Lions weren't able to tie the game until the top of the fifth inning when Michael Doran scored Justin Marcario on an RBI single that he was thrown out at second trying to extend the hit from a single to a double.
 
Rutgers-Newark answered in the bottom half of the fifth with two runs on four hits to bring their lead to 3-1.
 
In the seventh, the Scarlet Raiders expanded on their lead with two runs on two hits, giving them a four-run lead over the Lions. In the eighth, they tacked on four more runs on three hits. They held the Lions scoreless yet again in the ninth to take game two.
 
TCNJ baseball is back on the diamond for their next game on Monday to make up the postponed game against William Paterson with first pitch scheduled for 3:30 PM.