TEANECK, N.J. - The TCNJ baseball team wasted no time earning new head coach
Chris Collazo his first collegiate win, besting RIT 13-8 in a neutral site game played at Fairleigh Dickinson's Naimoli Family Baseball Complex Friday afternoon.
After allowing two runs in the opening half inning, it was the Lions responding with eight of their own over the ensuing three frames to take the lead for good. Much of the damage was done in the second in which scored six runs on four hits to blow the game open.
Down 2-1 after one,
Mike Doran led off the bottom of the second with a double that carried over the head of the center fielder and down, starting a streak of six straight batters reaching base safely.
Tim Search Jr. was next to do so after drawing a walk, setting up
Brian Lovaglio to rip a single through the left side to load the bases. Three straight free 90s forced by
Joe Tammaro,
Jake Carter and
Michael Contiliano scored the trio before the streak finally came to an end on a
Jack O'Donnell strikeout. Not satisfied, however, were the Lions (1-0), who used consecutive RBIs off the bats of
Tyler Provost and
Braden Dromboski to balloon the lead to 7-2 before the inning finally came to a close.
TCNJ added another run in the bottom of the third on a Contiliano RBI while starter
Ryan Greenstein and relief pitcher
Owen Hoffman – the sophomore entered the game to start the fourth – continued to mow down Tigers batters. A Lions fielding error got RIT back on the board for the first time since the opening inning, but it was the Lions getting some insurance of their own in the sixth off a Tigers error.
Contiliano and O'Donnell earned free trips on base before a Provost grounder put both runners in scoring position. Dromboski was hit on the ensuing at-bat to load the bases before an errant throw on what likely would have been an inning-ending double play scored both Contiliano and O'Donnell to push TCNJ's run total to 10. Two at-bats later it was Lovaglio striking again, this time launching a double to center field the scored Doran – the beneficiary of the error earlier in the frame – and Dromboski to give TCNJ its largest lead of the afternoon at 12-3.
RIT added a run in the top of the seventh that the Lions answered with a Tamarro RBI single an inning-and-a-half later to take a 13-4 lead into the ninth. The Tigers bats caught fire with their backs against the wall, rattling off four runs on three hits in an attempt to make an improbable comeback, but saw their effort fall short after back-to-back fly outs clinched the 13-8 win for the Lions.
STANDOUT LIONS
- Lovaglio: 3-4, 2 R, 2 RBI
- Contiliano: 2-3, 2 R, 2 RBI
- Doran: 2-4, 3 R
- Hoffman: 5 IP, 1 ER
UP NEXT
- TCNJ is back in action tomorrow for a doubleheader against RIT, with Game 1 set to start at noon.
