The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team had its three-game winning streak snapped in an 8-5 loss to Fairmont State at the Division II Challenge in Cary, NC. The Spartans drop to 3-7 overall with Fairmont State improving to 8-3.

Carrying the momentum into the evening affair, the Spartans jumped to a 4-run first inning, highlighted by Brian Donnelly's two-RBI single. Fairmont State answered with a run in the bottom half on Zach Musgrove's run-scoring hit. The Falcons added an unearned tally in the third as Musgrove scored on a passed ball to cut the margin to 4-2.

Spartans starter Alex Mack was strong through five innings but was victimized by a defensive miscue in the sixth, leading to Chris Green stroking a three-run double and FSU pushing across four runs to grab a 6-4 advantage. Donnelly continued to swing the hot bat with an RBI single in the seventh to make it a one-run game, but the Falcons pushed across a pair of big insurance runs in the home eighth to close out the scoring.

Mack allowed just two earned runs over 5.2 innings but took the loss and Donnelly had two hits and three RBI to lead STAC, with Will Brown picking up the relief win for Fairmont State.

The Spartans' return to the USA National Baseball Training Center for the final two games of the North Carolina leg of their journey, facing Slippery Rock on Tuesday and Franklin Pierece Wednesday, both 11:30 am starts. They then head to Virgina to square off with Bloomsburg University in a three-game series starting Friday.