The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team jumped out to an early lead but LeMoyne College utilized an 11-run rally in the seventh inning to take a 15-6 decision in a battle of two regionally-ranked teams at Provident Bank Park. St. Thomas Aquinas fell to 20-10 overall with the setback, while LeMoyne improved to 21-6-1.

Things started in promising fashion as STAC posted a pair of runs in each of the first two innings of LeMoyne starter Casey Cannon. Mike Russo's two-out, two-run double in the first put the Spartans on top and they tacked on in the second when Frank Salerno's single drove in two more to put the hosts up by four. Connor would settle in thereafter, however, giving his team the chance to get back in the game.

STAC starter Robert Frank would be tough early, allowing just one hit while fanning six through the first three innings. But it was his wildness in the fourth that would open the door for the Dolphins. Three walks, a hit batter, a wild pitch that brought in two runs would allow LeMoyne to draw even at 4-4.

The contest would remain knotted until the top of the seventh, when the floodgates would open. The Dolphins would send 16 batters to the plate in the marathon inning, scoring 11 runs on eight hits and a pair of STAC errors, which rendered seven of those runs unearned. The Spartans would bring a pair across in the bottom of the frame on a Nick Barbalato two-run single, but it was far too little, too late.

Cannon ended up working seven solid innings for LeMoyne to take the win and improve to 3-0, while Tim Tedesco was tagged with the loss in relief for STAC to fall to 1-3.

The Spartans return to action this weekend for a showdown between the ECC's two top squads as CW Post comes to Provident Bank Park on Saturday, April 7 for a noon double-header, and game three of that series will be played at Post on Monday, April 9.

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.