MIDDLETOWN, Pa. - The TCNJ baseball team saw its season come to an end in the PSU-Harrisburg Regional Sunday afternoon, beating second-seed Penn State Harrisburg to advance to the regional final where they fell to seventh-ranked and top-seeded Salve Regina.
GAME 1: TCNJ 5, PSU-Harrisburg 0
In a game that lasted spanned two days, one inning was all it took for the Lions to earn a gritty, 5-0 win over second-seeded PSU-Harrisburg and punch their ticket to the program's first regional final since 2019. Well, one inning and a gem on the mound from
Jordan Gray.
In what turned out to be his final outing in the Blue and Gold, the graduate student tossed a season-best seven shutout innings, allowing just five hits while fanning six – including two in his final inning of work – in a heroic effort to keep his team in the postseason.
Sunday's game – that began Saturday – started off as a pitcher's duel before a five-running fourth inning broke the game open in favor of the third-seeded Lions. With Sam Thompson on the mound in relief after an impressive start by Christian Lubic II, TCNJ rattled off three singles in their first four at-bats coming from
Ryan Goodall,
Justin Marcario and
Zach Hochheiser to give the Lions a 1-0 lead.
TCNJ took advantage of some errant pitching from there, with
Mike LaGravenis,
Gianni Marano and Goodall all drawing RBI walks to balloon the lead to five before a liner finally ended the inning.
Gray took care of business in the next three innings, keeping one of the top hitting teams in Division III off the board before the game was called due to darkness. Action picked back up Sunday morning with
Evan Frank on the mound, with the sophomore allowing a lone hit in his two innings of work to secure the 5-0 win and TCNJ's spot in the regional final.
STANDOUT LIONS
- Gray: 7 IP, 0 R, 6 K
- Goodall: 2-4, 1 RBI, 1 R
- Marcario: 2-4, 1 RBI, 1 R
GAME 2: Salve Regina 15, TCNJ 1
Fatigue appeared to set in in Sunday's regional championship, as errors plagued the Lions (28-19-1) early en route to a 15-1 loss to the top-seeded Seahawks.
Salve Regina scored a trio of unearned runs in the first two innings before erupting for nine in the third to take a commanding 12-0 lead they would not relinquish. TCNJ responded with a run of their own in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by
Zach Hochheiser, but that is as close as the Lions would get in the season-ending loss despite threatening for more in both the sixth and seventh innings.
TCNJ concludes its season with a record of 28-19-1 and the program's second-ever trip to an NCAA Regional Final.
