The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team defeated CW Post, 6-5, at Baseball Heaven in Yaphank. The victory moves the Spartans into sole possession of first place in the East Coast Conference with just three games remaining. The showdown between the teams tied for first in the league was postponed twice due to weather before being played today.

STAC improves to 16-5 in conference play (31-15 overall), one full game ahead of Post, which slipped into a tie with Dowling at 15-6. The Pioneers are now 26-16 overall. Not only do the Spartans have the edge with just a three-game weekend series with Queens remaining, but they also hold all tiebreakers over both of their closest competitors, having taken three of the four games in the season series from each.

St. Thomas Aquinas' Magic Number now stands at two - any combination of two Spartan wins and/or two losses by both Dowling and Post would clinch first, and with the Golden Lions and Pioneers meeting head-to-head this weekend, the worst STAC can finish is second.

After leading for much of the afternoon, the Spartans emerged victorious in an exciting finish, which saw the potential tying run gunned down at home for the game's final out.

As they have done so often this thrilling season, the Spartans wasted no time in jumping on top, pushing home three in the first inning. The visiting squad loaded the bases off Pioneer starter Paul Bischoff, all of whom came in when Andrew Hancsak's two-RBI single was booted by center fielder Rich Maccrone. STAC has now scored 48 of their 300 runs this season in the first inning, more than any other frame.

Post battled back to tie with two in the fourth and another in the fifth off Eric Cooper. Keith Herring's two-run blast brought his team to within one, and they drew even on Anthony Brunetti's RBI single. Following yet another pattern from throughout the season, however, STAC would waste little time in responding.

Nick Barbalato and Joe Antenucci led off the sixth with back-to-back singles, and one out later Mike Russo hit his conference-leading fifth home run of the season to bring in the decisive runs and make the score 6-3. Cooper would battle into the eighth inning, when Post once again narrowed the gap to within one on Angel Pimental's one-out, two run homer.

Closer Joe DePool, who took the loss in the teams' last meeting, an 11-10 Post win on April 9, was brought on and escaped further trouble in the eighth. The hosts would try to rally in their last at-bat, setting the stage for a memorable finish. With two out and Tom Kastelan on second, Tom Tolan singled to center. Barbalato came up throwing and Wargo applied the tag to push the Spartans into first place.

Cooper earned the win to improve to an impressive 5-1 with DePool taking his league-leading eighth save, while Bischoff dropped to 2-2. Barbalato, Antenucci, and George Wargo had two hits apiece in the winning effort.

The Spartans finish the ECC schedule with a three-game weekend set against Queens College; a twin-bill in Flushing on Saturday, May 5, and Senior Day at PBP on Sunday, May 6. First pitch is at 1:00, preceeded by Senior Day festivities. The regular season ends with a scheduled non-conference home tilt against Felician on Monday, May 7 at 3:00 pm.

ECC Tournament play begins this coming week, with dates and locations to be determined.

East Coast Conference Standings (thru 5/4/12)

x = clinched ECC Tournament slot     z = eliminated from ECC  tournament contention

Remaining ECC Games

Wednesday, May 2

@ Bridgeport 2, Mercy 1

Thursday, May 3

Dowling 5, @ Queens 0

Friday, May 4

St. Thomas Aquinas 6, @ CW Post 5

Saturday, May 5

St. Thomas Aquinas @ Queens (2), 1:00

CW Post @ Dowling (2), 12:00

 Molloy @ Bridgeport (2), 4:00

Sunday, May 6

Queens @ St. Thomas Aquinas, 1:00 

Dowling @ CW Post, 1:00

Bridgeport @ Molloy, 2:00

- End Regular Season -