MADISON, N.J. – The Drew University baseball team bolted to an early 5-1 lead and held on for a big 6-3 victory over ninth-ranked College of New Jersey on Monday in a non-conference tilt at Doc Young Field at Lonnstrom Stadium.
 
The Lions, who received their ranking from the American Baseball Coaches Association, sported a 12-1 record entering the game after winning their first 12 games of the season.
 
The win was Drew's first over a nationally-ranked opponent since a 3-1 victory at No. 5 Kean University on Feb. 18, 2020, and it was the Rangers' first win over TCNJ since 1962. Before Monday, the two sides had not met since 2002.
 
Sophomore Brandon Kobryn tossed six innings and allowed just one run on four hits while striking out two and walking only one. Junior Kendall Kendrick pitched 2/3 of an inning before freshman Tyler Bell worked the final 2 1/3 innings, yielding just one run on three hits while picking up his first career save.
 
Senior Billy Coleman provided a big blast at the plate, smacking a three-run opposite-field home run to hand their Rangers their 5-1 lead in the fourth inning.
 
The Rangers never trailed after scoring a pair of unearned runs in the second. Senior Nate Miller ripped a leadoff single before junior Ryan Jones reached on a fielder's choice. Jones stole second before Coleman reached on an error, allowing Jones to score the game's first run. Freshman Jack Mocik then delivered an RBI-double to knock in Coleman, making it 2-0.
 
Meanwhile, Kobryn (2-1) retired nine of his first 10 batters while tossing three shutout innings to open the game. TCNJ pushed across a run in the fourth to make it 2-1, but the Rangers answered with three in the bottom half, courtesy of Coleman's clout.
 
Miller got things started again with a leadoff walk before Jones drilled a one-out single. One batter later, Coleman crushed his first long ball of the season and his third as a Ranger to make it 5-1.
 
Drew came up with a big defensive play to end the top of the fifth. With runners on the corners, Kobryn faked a pickoff throw to first, then fired a throw to third with the runner drifting off the bag. When the runner broke for home, Mocik fired a strike to Coleman, who easily applied the tag for the final out of the inning.
 
Kobryn retired the last three batters he faced before TCNJ threatened in the seventh. The Lions loaded the bases and scored a run to make it 5-2 before Bell was summoned out of the pen with two outs. He promptly induced a 5-3 groundout to put out the threat.
 
TCNJ drew a leadoff walk in the eighth, but Bell coaxed a 6-4-3 double play and a grounder back to himself. Then in the bottom half, junior Raiden Yost singled leading off before senior Anthony Hernandez doubled. Freshman Aiden Mitchell then delivered a sacrifice fly to score Yost with an insurance run.
 
The Lions still would not go quietly, scoring once in the ninth on a single and double. But Bell struck out a batter looking to end the game.
 
The Rangers continue their eight-game homestand on Wednesday, when they host the University of Scranton at 3:30 p.m. in a Landmark Conference affair.