The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team came up short in an East Coast Conference twin bill against Molloy College, 2-1 and 6-1. The double-header loss, played at Stony Brook, extended the Spartans' losing streak to three as the Spartans fell to 16-10, 6-5. Molloy took over first place in the ECC, improving to 13-8, 7-4.

Game one started much as the game the day before, with STAC grabbing a 1-0 lead in the first frame. Frank Salerno led the afternoon off with a single, stole second, and eventually came home on a Mike Russo grounder.

Robert Frank, coming off a no-hitter over Bridgeport in his last outing, saw that streak snapped in the Lions' half of the second, but it was the wildness that has plagued Spartan pitching of late that set the table. Frank hit a pair of Molloy batters with pitches and both would come around to score, with the Lions adding three hits to the mix.

Meanwhile, Molloy starter Alex Miden found his groove, bouncing back from allowing three hits in the first inning to hold the visitors without another for the remainder of the seven-inning game. Frank also found his rhythm, allowing just those two runs on four hits in all, but the Spartans would not threaten again, having only one runner as far as second base over the final six innings.

Deja vu was the order of the day in Game Two, as, for the third straight game, St. Thomas Aquinas jumped out to an early advantage. This time it was the second inning which saw Kenny Kirshner single, move to third on a double, and come home on a Russo sac fly.

Eric Cooper worked five strong innings for the Spartans as that one run held until the bottom of the sixth, but the Lions would once again find a way to prevail. The first five batters to face reliever Brian Tompkins all hit safely, sparking a six-run uprising that would allow the hosts to complete the sweep.

St. Thomas Aquinas will try to salvage the finale of the four-game set when the host Molloy at Provident Bank Park on Sunday, April 7. First pitch is set for 1:00 pm.