The St. Thomas Aquinas baseball team had 7 first team all conference selections and 4 second team selections. Head Coach Scott Muscat was named the ECC Coach of the Year after guiding his team to a record breaking season. Mike Russo was named the ECC Player of the Year while Rob Naughton earned the ECC Co-Rookie of the Year.
Muscat who is in his 14th year at the helm of the Spartans earned ECC Coach of the Year recognition for the second year in a row. The veteran coach led his squad to a regular season record of 35-11, surpassing the 2012 record breaking season in which the Spartans recorded 33-wins.
A season after winning the conference's Triple Crown (led the ECC in batting average, homeruns, and RBI), Russo put together another amazing year in his senior campaign. The senior catcher nearly duplicated the Triple Crown feat by leading the conference in homeruns (10) and RBI (57). In addition, Russo led the conference with 106 totals bases and a .671 slugging percentage. His offensive prowess doesn't stop there however, as Russo also finished in the top-10 in the ECC in nearly every offensive category. Among his other impressive numbers are a .348 batting average, 55 hits, 15 doubles, 3 triples, 43 runs, 22 walks, 5 sacrifice flies, and a .427 on-base percentage.
Two pitchers tied for the conference's top rookie honor. Robert Naughton helped the Spartans to the ECC Regular Season Championship by posting a perfect 5-0 record in 10 appearances and seven starts on the season. In 49.2 innings, the two-time ECC Rookie of the Week allowed only 38 hits to hold opposing hitters to a .216 batting average against. Naughton's 1.63 earned run average was also good for second in the conference.
The Spartan accolades did not end there as STAC received post season awards in every position. Along with Russo; infielders Efrain Bautista, Stanley Susana and Starting Pitcher Rob Frank were named to the first team. Bautista led the ECC in conference batting average (.438) and was second in the ECC in slugging percentage (.639). Susana, who was the ECC Rookie of the Year in 2012, led the ECC in runs (22) and stolen bases (14) and was second in RBI (44). Frank who is second in conference only games with a 1.29 ERA, was a 3x ECC Pitcher of the week and 2x Regional Pitcher of the Week. The junior threw a no hitter against Bridgeport and broke a STAC record with 14 strike outs in a 7-inning game against Mercy, yielding just one hit.
Rounding out the infield, first baseman Kenny Kirshner, who lead the ECC in hits(65) and short stop Frank Salerno were named to the ECC second team. Salerno who was the 2012 ECC Player of the Year, was the top fielding short stop in the ECC (.976).
Senior Nick Barbalato and fellow outfielder Rich Baerga were also named to the first team while Derek Hirsch was a second team selection. Barbalato recorded his 200 career hit this season and has been instrumental in the Spartans success. Baerga was named ECC Player of the Week once this season and in second in conference only games batting (.426) Stephen Sunday earned second team honors as a DH, notching 22 RBI, 5 doubles and 3 homeruns in 92 at bats.