EWING, N.J. - The TCNJ softball team hosted New Jersey City in an NJAC doubleheader Friday afternoon, coasting to a 5-0, Game 1 win before using a sixth-inning rally to secure an 11-5, come-from-behind Game 2 victory and complete the sweep of the Gothic Knights.
 
GAME 1: TCNJ 5, NJCU 0
 
The Lions (19-13, 11-3 NJAC) struck first in Friday's opener, starting a two-out rally in the bottom of the first to take a quick 1-0 lead. Julia Kinnally started things with a single to right field, stealing second before a Sara Vincent single through the left side scored the graduate student.
 
Maya Knasiak, who allowed a hit on the first at-bat of the game, was phenomenal from that moment on. The sophomore retired all but two – a walk and a double – of the next all but two of the next 12 batters she faced, keeping NJCU (15-17, 2-12 NJAC) off the board and setting up TCNJ to add for in the bottom of the sixth to put the game out of reach.
 
Morgan Estelow got Game 1's sixth-inning rally started with a single to center field, stealing second to put herself in scoring position. On the ensuing at bat it was Kinnally ripping a double down the left field line to score the junior before crossing home plate herself on another Vincent base knock. The Lions' final two runs came on a pair of RBIs from Mckayla Yard – the senior's first triple of the season – and Camryn Kitchin to make it a 5-0 game.
 
Julia Roessler – the senior tossed a perfect top of the sixth in relief prior to TCNJ's rally – came back in and allowed a lone hit in the seventh to secure her second collegiate save and the win for the Lions.
 
STANDOUT LIONS

• Knasiak: 5 IP, 0 Runs, 9 Ks
• Roessler: 2 IP, 0 Runs
• Kinnally: 2-3, 2 Runs, 1 RBI
• Vincent: 2-3, 2 RBIs

GAME 2: TCNJ 11, NJCU 5
 
TCNJ struck first in Friday's finale, but it was the Gothic Knights responding with five runs between the third and fourth innings to take their first lead of the day before a late rally saved the Lions from an upset.
 
Neveling opened the game with her second triple of the season, scoring on the ensuing at-bat on an Estelow grounder that NJCU's infield struggled to corral. Estelow scored on a Kinnally double before a Vincent single put runners on the corners. Already up 2-0, a sacrifice fly from Yard gave the Lions an early 3-0 lead.
 
After a quiet second inning, Elizabeth Gosse struggled to find her control in the third, walking a trio of Gothic Knights batters to allow the first run in before a single with Roessler now in the circle leveled the score at three.TCNJ's duo of Roessler and Llano continued to battle in the fourth, but RBIs by Elyze Lopez and Abby Castro gave NJCU a 5-3 lead, its first of the afternoon.
 
The Lions were held in check once again in the fourth, but a near-perfect top of the fifth thrown by Gosse – the junior had re-entered the game to register the final out of the fourth inning – set the table for TCNJ to outscore the Gothic Knights 8-0 over the final two innings en route to the 11-3 win.
 
After Kinnally and Yard both registered their second RBIs of the game to level the score at five after five, it was Kitchin starting the Lions' six-run, sixth-inning rally with a double to left center field. A sacrifice bunt off the bat of Gianna Vazquez moved the runner to third – Jessica Sclafani had replaced Kitchin on the bags – before Grace Brouillard awarded head coach Sally Miller's decision to use her as a pinch hitter with an RBI single through the left side to give TCNJ the 6-5 lead.
 
In what ended up being one of the Lions' highest scoring innings of the year, TCNJ got RBIs from Neveling, Estelow, Yard, Amelia Santos and Kitchin to turn a 5-5 tie into an 11-5 lead.
 
Gosse took to the circle in the seventh and forced a trio of grounders to grab the comeback win and series sweep over the Gothic Knights.
 
STANDOUT LIONS

• Neveling: 4-4, 1 3B, 2 2B, 3 Runs, 1 RBI
• Yard: 3-3, 3 RBIs
• Kinnally: 2-3, 2 Runs, 2 RBIs

NOTES

• With her two runs in Game 1, Kinnally eclipsed 100 for her career.
• Vincent now holds a 10-game hitting streak.
• Brouillard's game-winning hit was just her second of the season.

UP NEXT

• The Lions will travel to Rutgers-Camden for an NJAC doubleheader Tuesday, April 22. First pitch of TCNJ's regular-season road finale is set for 3 p.m.