The St. Thomas Aquinas College Baseball team concluded its 4-game Myrtle Beach trip on Sunday afternoon with a 7-5 victory over the Felician University Golden Falcons. 

STAC would jump out to a quick 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on the strength of a bases loaded passed ball scoring Anthony Maisano, followed by Andrew Jemison reaching home, also with the bases loaded, via a fielding error and then a Kyle Lagrutta hit by pitch, scoring Matthew Johnson with the bases full of Spartans once again. That would spell the end of the day for Felician starting pitcher Kyle O'Neill, who would be replaced by Ryan Kurczeski and pick up the final two outs of the inning.

In the fifth inning, the Spartans would strike again for three more runs, as first Brian Donnelly would double down the left field line, scoring Dylan Klock to make it 4-0. A Kyle Lagrutta stolen base would draw an errant throw from Falcon's catcher Max Alessi, scoring Klock to push the score to 5-0. Christopher Conti would then single to left, scoring Lagrutta to give St. Thomas Aquinas a 6-0 advantage.

Felician University would try to mount a comeback in the eighth inning with the bases full of Falcons. Spartan starter Thomas Gregory would get the first out of the inning, before back-to-back hits by Ryan DeLeon and Mike Martinez. Gregory would then be relieved by John Greeley. Anthony Condito would greet Greeley by picking up an RBI single to right field, bringing home DeLeon to make it 6-1 STAC. Felician would then call upon pinch-hitter Johnny Medina Jr., who plated two more runs on an 2 RBI single to right, scoring both Martinez and Nick Vincelli to cut the lead in half at 6-3. Sean Downey would get the Falcons within two at 6-4 as he would reach on a fielder's choice, scoring Condito. John Greeley would then get Carlos Bermudez to groundout to short to end the inning.

In the bottom of the eighth, Diego Quinones would take the mound in place of Kyle O'Neill for Felician and immediately give up hits to both Jonnathan Cepeda and Anthony Maisano, before walking Andrew Jemison to load the bases with no one out. Michael D'Andrea would then come off the bench for STAC hit an RBI sacrifice fly to centerfield, scoring Cepeda and pushing the the contest back to a 3-run game at 7-4. Quinones would get the final two outs of the inning and give the Falcons a chance to rally back.

STAC would counter any attempted comeback by Felician with a pitching change, calling upon James Reilly to get the final three outs of the contest. Reilly would get the first out of the ninth, but Anthony Santoro would then reach first on a fielding error, before the Falcons would insert pinch-runner Lance Mumford for Santoro. Reilly then got Ryan DeLeon via a strikeout for the second out. Mike Martinez would next step to the plate and get a base knock, bringing home Santoro to make it 7-5 STAC. However, the Spartans would shut the door on this one, as Nick Vincelli would groundout to third to end the ballgame. 

Spartan starter Thomas Gregory went seven and a third innings, picking up his first win of 2020, giving up six hits and two runs, while walking one and striking out three. Relievers John Greeley and James Reilly would combine for one and a third innings pitched, giving up 3 total runs on 3 hits, while striking out one batter. Reilly would pick up his first save of the year for his work in the ninth.

Falcons pitcher Kyle O'Neill would last only a third of an inning, giving up two hits and three runs, while walking one and striking out one, taking the loss for Felician. Ryan Kurczeski would fair no better, as he would surrender three hits and three runs over four and two-thirds innings, while also walking three and fanning three. Joe Krause and Diego Quinones would combine for three full innings of work, giving up only three hits and a run, while walking one and striking out two Spartan batters.

St. Thomas Aquinas College (2-2) returns to action next Friday, February 28th at the University of New Haven for a scheduled doubleheader in West Haven, Connecticut. First pitch of game one is set for 12pm, with game two at approximately 2:30pm.