UNION, N.J.- The TCNJ baseball team capped off their Cinderella run on top, defeating Kean in the 'winner take all' game two on Monday night by a score of 12-9. This is the first championship for the Lions since 2019.
 
GAME 1: Kean 20, TCNJ 10
 
The Cougars forced a game two with a 20-10 win over the Lions. Three TCNJ players had multiple hits including Justin Marcario, Chris Reeder and Jack Haynes. Haynes led the Lions with 2 RBIs and Marcario had three runs scored with an RBI including a homerun.
 
GAME 2: TCNJ 12, Kean 9
 
The Lions came out firing in the championship game, scoring four runs in the top of the first on three hits and one error. An infield single from Marcario scored Mike LaGravenis, who led off the game with a triple over the right-fielder's head. After Reeder reached base on a fielding error, Ryan Goodall sent a three run shot into orbit, bringing home himself, Marcario and Reeder to take an early, 4-0 lead.
 
Starter John DiCostanzo toughed it out for the Lions on the mound today, going back to the rubber on just three days' rest. The freshman went three innings, giving up two runs on three hits and four walks with five strikeouts.
 
In the second, Goodall answered the bell once again with a two-run bomb soaring over the fence in left center to score himself and Marcario to put TCNJ up 6-0 after two.
 
The Lions tacked on two more in the third on two hits, including a LaGravenis RBI single to center field, scoring Sebastian JnoBaptiste. The second run of the inning came from a Reeder sacrifice fly to right center, scoring Haynes.
 
In the bottom half of the third, DiCostanzo worked his way out of a bases loaded, one-out jam with two consecutive strikeouts to bring the Lions back up to hit in the fourth.
 
Similar to innings previous, TCNJ put up two more in the top of the fourth on one hit and one error to take a commanding 10-0 lead. Marcario reached first on an error, which brought in Zach Weiner. The Lions got another free one as Reeder wore one off the back with the bases loaded to bring in Haynes.
 
From the bottom of the fourth through the seventh, the Cougars rallied back with nine unanswered runs to bring themselves within one.
 
With one out in the seventh, Joe Ferreri came in and managed to shut down Kean in his 1.2 innings of work. After going one, two, three in the eighth he handed it over to Ben Amon in the ninth to close it out. Amon struck out one in his one inning of relief and a pop up to Fernandez at third sealed the deal for the Lions. In a switch of roles, it was Amon who earned the save and Ferreri who got the win.
 
With the win, the TCNJ baseball team has punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament starting on Friday, May 19^th with the location and opponents still to be determined.