Mike Russo's two-out double keyed a three-run ninth inning, propelling the St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team to a 4-3 triumph at Caldwell College. Joe DePool took the win in relief for the Spartans, who had dropped four of their previous five and improve to 12-8 overall. The host Cougars saw their modest two-game win streak snapped, falling to 2-11 on the season.
Caldwell broke on top in the bottom of the first off STAC starter Nick May, as the first two batters reached on a single and a walk, and Jorge Ynoa doubling in the game's first tally. May would battle back to escape further damage with a pair of grounders and a strikeout, which would turn out to be a key point in the game.
May fired blanks for the rest of his five-inning stint and Ken Frawley came out of the pen to add two scoreless frames, but the Spartan offense had no answers for Cougar righty AJ Boardman, who yielded just one hit over seven innings of work - a Joe Antenucci single in the first. With the Spartans trailing, 1-0, through seven and the game turned over to the bullpens, the stage was set for a frantic finish.
With Craig Gourley taking the hill, STAC's Stanley Susana led off with a single in the eighth. After a sacrifice by Russo and a bunt single by Andrew Romanella, Andrew Hancsak finally got his team on the board with a sac fly to right, knotting the score at 1-1.
Caldwell would quickly answer in the bottom half, however, as a dropped pop up by Russo opened the door for the hosts' rally. A Thomas Pisano double and a Stephen Luczaj single scored a pair of unearned runs, putting the Spartans in a 3-1 hole entering their final inning.
Cougar reliever Gary Gurino-Burns gave STAC life, walking his only two batters faced, Romanella and Antenucci, to put the tying runs on base. Eric Bomenbilt was brought on and added fuel to the fire, hitting George Wargo with a pitch to load the bases. With Caldwell playing for the double-play, Matt Marotta's grounder was almost what the doctor ordered, but after Wargo was forced at second, the return throw from second baseman Peter Scianna went awry, as Romanella and Antenucci came in to once again tie the score.
Marotta promptly stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Tom Todaro, but with the go-ahead run just 90 feet away, Efrain Bautista was set down on strikes for the second out. Not to be denied, Russo's double into the left field corner plated Marotta, giving the Spartans their first lead of the day. After allowing a leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth, DePool retired the next three batters in order to improve his record to 1-0. Bomenbilt was tagged with the loss to fall to 0-1.
The Spartans return to action when they kick off the East Coast Conference portion of their schedule with a weekend set against Dowling College. STAC will host the Golden Lions at Provident Bank Park in a double-header on Saturday, March 24 at noon, before traveling to Brookville for a solo on Sunday, also slated for noon.
Remember, if you can't make it to the park you can follow the Spartans in real time for every home game and select road contests by clicking on the "Live Stats" link (where available) on the team schedule.