Little Falls, NJ – Junior left-hander RYAN COSTELLO went the distance on a five-hitter as Montclair State knocked off The College of New Jersey, 5-1 at Yogi Berra Stadium on Monday afternoon.

Junior shortstop BRIAN ELLERSON went 3-for-4 with two RBI as the Red Hawks (16-8) maintained their top spot in the NJAC standings with their second straight victory and third in the last four contests. The game was the first meeting between the teams since last year's NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional title game won by MSU, 5-3.

Costello earned his second win in as many decisions as he allowed the one run with five strikeouts and three walks. The junior recorded 13 of the 27 outs on the ground.

Montclair got on the board in the bottom of the first. DAVE WURST singled in the infield to lead off the inning. Following a pair of outs, Ellerson stroked a double to left driving in Wurst with the game's first run.

MSU added to the lead in the third with Wurst again playing the catalyst as he walked with one out and stole second. Baran followed with a triple to right-center and a Conway sacrifice fly to center plated Baran as MSU led 3-0.

The Lions (11-8-1, 4-4 NJAC) got a run back in the top of the sixth. A single by Mike Kohri and double by Bob Capaldo put runners at second and third with one out. Frank Soos lifted a sacrifice fly to left pulling TCNJ within 3-1, however Costello ended any further threat with a ground out to close the inning.

Montclair quickly answered that run plus one more in its half of the sixth inning. Conway led off with a triple and scored as Ellerson doubled down the left field line. Ellerson moved to third on a sacrifice and scored as JEFF SCHRIBER flew out to center for the RBI sac fly and a 5-1 Montclair State advantage.

Costello took it from there retiring nine of the final 11 hitters he faced.  Justin Kiser (0-2) was tagged with the loss to TCNJ.

Montclair State continues its busy stretch of games this week, heading to Allentown, PA on Tuesday, April 17 for a matchup with DeSales University (formerly Allentown College). Like today's game, it will be a rematch of an NCAA Regional game from a year ago which MSU also won 14-11, after trailing 10-0 early on and took three days to complete due to rain.