The St. Thomas Aquinas college baseball team scored early and often en route to a 22-9 victory over Dominican College at Provident Bank Park. The Spartans have now won five straight and 11-of-12 overall to improve to 27-11 on the season. Dominican - who served up the Spartans' last defeat just one week ago - fell to 22-16 with the loss.

This one was practically over before it started.

Frank Salerno led off the top of the first in the STAC "road" game with a single, moved to secod on a wild pitch, and stole third. After a strikeout, Mike Russo's RBI double touched off a streak of 14 straight Spartans reaching base - 10 hits, two errors, one walk and one hit batter - as they batted twice through the order, putting up a two-touchdown lead at 14-0 before the hosts could take a swing.

STAC tacked on another in the second, and while Dominican showed signs of life with four in the bottom of the second and another in the third, the 15-5 lead was still comfortable and never threatened as the Spartans pulled away.

By the time the score was 18-5 through the fifth inning, all nine STAC starters had scored at least one run and recorded at least one hit, while eight of the nine posted RBIs. Kenny Kirshner ended up with a big day, going 5-for-7 with four runs scored, Mike Russo added three hits and two RBIs to his league-leading total, and Stanley Susana drove in three for the Spartans. 

Five pitchers were the combined beneficiaries of the avalanche of run support, with Brian Tompkins getting credit for the win to improve to 3-1.

The Spartans will try to retain their grip on first place in their final East Coast Conference series of the season against Queens College, which begins Friday in Flushing. STAC hosts a Saturday twin-bill at Provident Bank Park before wrapping up at Queens on Sunday. The Spartans will get to watch the rest of the competition the following weekend, getting the bye week in the seven-team ECC.