EWING, N.J. – The Ursinus College baseball team were unable to overcome an early deficit falling to The College of New Jersey, 19-4, on Thursday afternoon from George Ackerman Park.
The loss snaps the Bears' four-game winning streak as they enter Spring Break with a 4-3 record, while the Lions improved to 2-2 on the season. Junior
Shane Beaver led the Bears offense going 3-for-4 at the plate with a run scored in his first start of the season. Junior catcher Geroge Nestor led the team with two RBIs, while senior
Jordan Williams and sophomore
Barritt Ross each added an RBI.
Ursinus opened the contest by putting two runners base via walks, but unfortunately, they would be stranded as a flyout, and a lineout ended the Bears' threat. The Lions responded by taking a 1-0 advantage in the bottom half of the inning as a two-out home run gave TCNJ an early lead. Senior
Cory Burns tallied a two-out double in the second frame, but was stranded there as a ground out closed out the inning.
TCNJ added a pair of runs in the second behind two hits, two free passes, and a Bears' defensive miscue to increase their advantage to 3-0. The Lions later increased their lead to 7-0, before the Bears responded with their first run in the fifth inning. Sophomore
Brandon Sullivan led off with a walk, stole two bases, before scoring on a single from Ross.
Ursinus cut the Lions' lead to three in the sixth inning as the Bears scored three runs off two hits and three walks to make the score 7-4. Beaver led off with a one-out double, while Williams reached on a hit-by-pitch, and first-year
Matthew Callahan forced a walk to load the bases. Next, Nestor came through with a double down the left field line with Williams adding a sacrifice fly to close out the inning for Ursinus. However, TCNJ's offense responded with 12 runs over the final two innings en route to the 19-4 victory for the Lions.
The Bears return to action on Saturday, March 8th as they open their spring training trip with a doubleheader against Bridgewater State University from Griffith Field at 3 p.m.