WAYNE, N.J. – TCNJ baseball starting pitchers Ben Amon and Jackson Malouf each struck out 16 batters during their respective starts in Saturday's NJAC baseball doubleheader at William Paterson. In the opener, Amon has a no-decision in TCNJ's 6-2 defeat. In the second game, Malouf earned the complete-game victory in an 11-3 TCNJ win. It's his second complete game of the season and his first career nine-inning complete game.
Amon's 16 strikeouts give him 201 for his career, making him just the fourth pitcher in school history to surpass 200 career strikeouts. He's now tied with Dan Brown (1985-88) for third place on the school's all-time list. Nick Maddalena (1999-02, 226 Ks) and Chris Buglovsky (1998-01, 210 Ks) currently rank 1-2 on that list.
Game One: WPU 6, TCNJ 2
The Lions scored runs in both the first and second innings, staking TCNJ to an early 2-0 lead. Mike LaGravenis led off the game with a double to right center, and he moved to third later in the inning on a wild pitch. He scored on Andrew Fernandez's single up the middle to make it 1-0.
In the second inning, TCNJ took advantage of a William Paterson error to score an unearned run. Jack O'Donnell was on first with two outs, but he moved to third on a fielding error to prolong the inning. LaGravenis cashed in with an RBI single to make it 2-0.
Amon had 10 strikeouts through his first four innings of work, striking out the side in both the third and fourth innings. In that fourth inning, though, Amon ran into a little bit of trouble. The Pioneers followed a leadoff single with a one-out, two-run home run to tie the game at 2-2.
The Lions had chances in the fifth and sixth innings to retake the lead but stranded two runners in each frame. In the fifth, Fernandez and Jack Haynes each singled, but runners were left on the corners. In the sixth, LaGravenis was at third after a walk and Justin Marcario was at first after a hit batsman, but they were also left stranded.
Amon made it through seven innings and the Pioneers capitalized in the eighth, scoring four runs to tilt the contest in their favor.
LaGravenis and Fernandez each had three hits and a walk to pace the offense.
Game Two: TCNJ 11, WPU 3
The Lions again scored in each of the first two innings, this time scoring three runs in the second inning after scoring a run in the first. Zach Hochheiser reached on a two-out, bases-loaded error in the first inning to score Marcario. In the second inning, Marcario tripled home LaGravenis and O'Donnell to expand the TCNJ lead to 3-0. Fernandez followed with a run-scoring single to plate Marcario.
William Paterson pushed across an unearned run in the bottom of the second and scored two more in the sixth to cut the TCNJ lead to 4-3. This time, though, the late-innings offense came from the TCNJ side.
In the seventh inning, the Lions loaded the bases with one out and scored a run on a Ryan Goodall single. After the second out, Haynes delivered a big blow with a two-run double to make it 7-3. Hochheiser scored on a wild pitch to make it 8-3, and Jake Carter singled home Haynes to make it 9-3.
In the eighth, Goodall doubled home two more runs to push the lead to 11-3.
Marcario, Goodall and Carter all had three hits.
