CAMDEN, N.J. – Despite an excellent offensive day where Tyler Provost homered twice and the team racked up 15 hits, the TCNJ baseball squad dropped a tightly contested 8-7 decision on the road against Rutgers-Camden on Friday.
 
To open the game, the Scarlet Raptors (12-10) scored six runs in the first three innings while TCNJ (11-12) scored twice in the second inning. Braden Dromboski led off the second with a single, and Chris Salmon followed up with an RBI triple over the head of the center fielder. Jack O'Donnell than scored Salmon with sacrifice fly in the next at-bat.
 
Faced with an early deficit, TCNJ reliever LC Smith performed well on the mound to set up a strong comeback bid. Smith pitched four solid innings where he allowed five hits and no earned runs, helping his team come back to eventually tie the game.
 
A Nate McLaughlin RBI single (one of his four hits on the day) in the fourth and a Tyler Provost solo home run in the fifth cut the Rutgers-Camden lead to two runs, but the home team reinstated their three-run lead in the bottom of the sixth. Neither team scored until the top of the eighth, where Provost came up big with his second homer of the game.
 
In that frame, TCNJ put runners on the corners after McLauglin opened with a walk and Brian Lovaglio singled. The Scarlet Raptors then made a pitching change, replacing starter Gavin Cunard with Nikolas Kalogiros. Provost, the next batter, wasted no time and smashed the first pitch he saw over the left field fence to tie up the game at 7-7. The multi-homer game would not be enough, however, as Rutgers-Camden got a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to end the game.
 
STANDOUT LIONS

• McLauglin: 4-5, 1 RBI, 1 R, 1 BB
• Dromboski: 3-5, 1 2B, 1 R
• Provost: 2-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R
• Salmon: 2-4, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 1 R
• Smith: 4.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 hits allowed, 3 Ks

UP NEXT

• The Lions finish off a busy week with a doubleheader on the road against Ramapo on Saturday, April 4.