The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team won the opener of a scheduled East Coast Conference double-header against Queens College by a 22-2 margin before rallying to tie the nightcap, which was suspended due to darkness with the score tied at 4-4 after seven innings. The Spartans now improve to 21-7 overall and are in sole possession of first place in the ECC with a 7-2 mark, after Bridgeport's split with Molloy. Queens dropped to 11-15, 3-6 with the opening game loss.
Spartan ace Matt Kostolos was granted all the cushion he would need before ever stepping on the field, as Greg Dawber led off the game with a home run to touch off a five-run rally. Deven Del Priore, Joe Signore, and Giovanni Dingcong all added RBI hits in the inning.
Four more hits - including Brandon Fischer's RBI double - plated another quartet of runs in the second, and STAC was off to the races with a 9-0 gap. A third-inning unearned run was the only blemish for Kostolos, who fanned six and walked one while taking a rest after five innings.
Queens pitching contributed to the rout with four walks and three hit batters in an eight-run sixth inning, marked by Chris Ruiz coming off the bench to stroke a two run single. After STAC added another in the seventh, Andre Jackson capped the onslaught with a three-run homer in the visiting eighth. Kostolos is now 4-0 after the win, with Fischer recording three hits.
That surplus of runs would not carry over into game two, though the prospects were promising early on for the Spartans. Fischer's first-inning RBI grounder brought in Joey Pena, and Jon McGugan led off the fourth to give STAC a 2-0 edge. Michael Morgan's run-scoring single later that frame put the visitors up by three, but Queens showed its first signs of life on the day, rallying to tie against starter Sam Vincenzo in the bottom of the inning.
A pair of STAC errors helped the Knights to three unearned runs to tie the score, and one inning later Brian Watters came through with an RBI single to give Queens a 4-3 game.
With time running out in the scheduled seven-inning affair, Knights starter Brandon Burrell carried that narrow lead into STAC's final chance. After a leadoff out, Del Priore authored a pinch single to put the tying run aboard, with Juan Adorno coming in to pinch run. Greg Dawber lined to right for the second out, but as they have done so often this season, the Spartans found a way to keep the game alive.
After falling behind 0-2, Pena lined a single to right, advancing Adorno to third. Fischer also fell behind by an 0-2 count, and with STAC again facing it's final strike of the game, Burrell uncorked a wild pitch, bringing Adorno home with the tying run. Chris Pennell, who worked 2.2 innings of one-hit relief, induced an inning-ending double play to set up extra innings, before the game was halted due to darkness. The suspended game will be concluded, with details yet to be determined.
On Sunday, April 10, the series shifts to STAC's home park for a double-header. Sunday's games WILL be played at Provident Bank Park, with the first game scheduled for a 2:00 pm start. The long-awaited home opener will touch off a string of seven in a row at PBP, continuing with games on Tuesday against Nyack College, and Wednesday against East Stroudsburg University.
- Steve Balsan, St. Thomas Aquinas Sports Information
- Photo by Dorice Arden