The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team plated four late runs but were unable to overcome Adelphi University in a 6-4 setback in Lake Worth, Florida. The game was the first of six for the Spartans on their Florida Trip, dropping them to 4-3 overall while Adelphi improved to 3-1-1 on the season.

After trading zeroes through the first two innings, STAC starting pitcher Eric Cooper retired the first two batters in the top of the third before committing a throwing error that would open the door. The Panthers pounced with three hits and two walks, pushing across three unearned runs for the early lead. Cooper would recover to toss blanks over the next two innings, but the Spartans could not break through on Adelphi's Jonathan Mulford, who allowed just three hits over five scoreless frames.

Adelphi added two more in the sixth, once again with help from their opponents, as the Spartans yielded three walks, two wild pitches and a passed ball, along with a Panthers RBI single to put STAC down by a handful through six.

STAC would rally back into the game in the last of the eighth, as Adelphi reliever James McCormack walked Felipe Campusano with the bases loaded to put the Spartans on the board. Efrain Bautista singled in two more runs to cut the deficit to two, and the tying runs were moved to scoring position when Mike Apreda was hit by a pitch to re-load the bases. The rally would come to a close when Rich Baerga fanned to end the inning.

Wildness would once again plague St. Thomas Aquinas, as reliever Joe Grimaldi would contribute to a Panthers' insurance run in the ninth by walking three batters. STAC would answer in the ninth, when Frank Salerno led off with a single, stole second and third and came in on a Stephen Sunday single. But with the tying run on base, reliever Vincent Caputo was able to fan Campusano to end the game and earn the save.

Cooper was tagged with the loss for the Spartans, who saw Sunday and Bautista record two hits each.

STAC will look for a measure of revenge as they square off with Adelphi again tomorrow, March 10, in Lake Worth, Florida in a 12:00 noon start. The game will be the second in the Spartans' six-game Florida swing.