The St. Thomas Aquinas College Baseball team dropped a 2-1 decision to Molloy College, in Game Two of the Best-of-Three ECC Championship Final series at Mitchel Field in Uniondale, NY on Saturday afternoon. The Lions captured their first ECC postseason title since 2001 with the victory and earned an automatic bid into the upcoming NCAA Division II East Regional Tournament. Molloy improves to 21-9, while STAC falls to 25-5 on the year.

Leading the Spartan offense on the afternoon were Andrew Guerra, who went 2-for-3 with a run scored and Andrew Jemison, who had two hits in four at-bats. Anthony Maisano, Greg DiGiaro and Matt Johnson also picked up a hit apiece in the contest. Guerra would score the lone STAC run on an RBI sacrifice fly by Joe Scamardella, following Andrew's one-out triple down the right field line in the seventh inning.

Angelo Baez got the start on the mound for St. Thomas Aquinas and performed well, working in and out of several jams over his first six innings. However, in the seventh inning and with the Spartans up 1-0, Baez would give up a single to Matt Overton and then be charged with a balk, moving Overton to second base. A Thomas Brady ground out would then move Overton to third, before Patrick Hoffman doubled down the right field line to score Matt Overton to tie the game at one. A second double down the right field line, this time by David Franchi and just moments later, would score pinch runner Vincent Pecora to put Molloy ahead for good at 2-1.

Overall Baez pitched seven innings, giving up six hits and two runs (two earned), while walking three and striking out four. He would pick up the loss for STAC, moving his record to 5-1 on the season. Reliever TJ Gregory would come on in relief in the eighth and only walk a batter, while K'ing another.

ECC FINAL SERIES GAME TWO HIGHLIGHTS - MOLLOY 2/STAC 1

FACTS & FIGURES

• The Spartans posted 1 runs on 7 hits, while Molloy earned 2 runs on 6 hits.
• STAC pitchers struck out 5 Lions batters, while issuing four walks.
• St. Thomas Aquinas stranded 8 runners on base. Molloy left 5.

UP NEXT

St. Thomas Aquinas now awaits the NCAA Division II Baseball East Regional Tournament seedings, which will announced on Sunday evening, May 23 at 10pm via NCAA.com.

The winners of the ECC (Molloy College), CACC (Dominican College) and NE10 (Southern New Hampshire University) have already secured spots in the regional, with three additional at-large bids to be decided on by the selection committee.

LATEST EAST REGION POLL (Released on May 19)