GALLOWAY, N.J. – A couple of costly errors and a lack of timely hitting doomed the No. 23 TCNJ baseball team to a 5-2 setback at Stockton on Sunday afternoon.
 
The Lions outhit the Ospreys, 10-6, but left multiple men on base in four different innings and a dozen for the game to spoil another strong start from Dan Merkel and surrender a series split.
 
FOR THE RECORD

• TCNJ is now 18-8 overall and 6-4 in the NJAC, while Stockton upped its mark to 16-12 overall and 7-3 in NJAC play

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Stockton put the Lions in an early hole with a first-inning run and had men on second and third with nobody out, but Merkel managed to limit the home side to just the solo score with a strikeout, foul-out, and pop-up
• TCNJ stranded two men in both the second and third innings, and another miscue proved costly in the bottom of the fourth as the Ospreys plated a two-out run thanks to a throwing error
• Merkel hit the leadoff man in the bottom of the sixth and Stockton took advantage by tacking on an infield hit and a sacrifice bunt before a fielder's choice scored the lead runner for a 3-0 lead
• The Lions had two on with no outs in the seventh, but Stockton neutralized the threat with a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play
• Stockton added insurance in the bottom of the seventh, a two-run homer from Nick Avagnano
• TCNJ finally broke through in the top of the eighth, when a walk and a hit batsman preceded consecutive RBI singles from Zach Hochheiser and Michael Schumacher to trim the margin to 5-2
• The Ospreys brought on Reece Miller to get out of the jam and he did just that, getting the last two outs of the inning and tossing a 1-2-3 ninth for his fifth save of the season

STANDOUT LIONS

• Hochheiser finished 3-for-4 with an RBI
• Mike LaGravenis and Andrew Fernandez each had multiple hits
• Merkel allowed three runs (one earned) on four hits with three walks in 6.0 solid frames

UP NEXT

• The Lions play their final non-conference road game Tuesday at Immaculata