Union, NJ – Sophomore Dana Amato (Hillsdale, NJ, Pascack Valley) belted a homer and drove in three runs while sophomore righthander Alex Hill (Parsippany, NJ, Parsippany Hills) fired a five-hit shutout as top-seeded Montclair State moved to 2-0 in the NCAA Union, NJ Regional with a 7-0 victory over fourth-seeded The College of New Jersey at Kean University's Cougar Field on Friday.

Senior Stephanie Szeliga (South Plainfield, NJ, South Plainfield) went 3-for-3 with a run batted in as the Red Hawks advance and will face either second-seeded Rowan or seventh-seeded Centenary College at 2:00 pm on Saturday, May 12 with the winner moving on to Sunday's championship round.

Montclair improved to 40-7 on the year, the second time in school history that MSU reached 40 victories in a season as only the 2008 team, which finished 43-6, has won more games.

Hill won her 28th game of the season, the second-highest season win total in Montclair State history, while also posting her 17th shutout extending her own single-season record. It was the second time in less than a week that Hill blanked the Lions (26-16) as she registered an eight-inning 1-0 win versus TCNJ in last week's NJAC Tournament. She struck out two and did not walk a batter.

TCNJ senior Lauren Fitzsimmons (Bridgewater, NJ / Bridgewater-Raritan) quieted the MSU bats in that game last week as it took Montclair State eight innings to finally put a run on the board. This time, it didn't take that long as Hill helped her cause in the top of the first inning with a two-run double.

Jamie Paulino (Linden, NJ, Linden) extended the lead to 3-0 in the second inning with an RBI double that brought home Shannon Mozek (Wayne, NJ, Wayne Valley).

Amato provided the next three runs with a two-run single in the fourth and a solo homer in the sixth, her second in as many games and ninth of the season as the Red Hawks lead grew to 7-0.

Szeliga accounted for the final run with a run-scoring double in the top of the seventh.

Amato and Szeliga had three hits apiece for Montclair State, which had 10 in the contest. Nicole Brodbeck (Atco, NJ / Hammonton) and Kately Congilose (Toms River, NJ / Monsignor Donovan) combined for TCNJ's five hits.


Union, NJ Regional