The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team blasted three homers - two from Mike Russo - in defeating Bloomfield College, 11-7 at Provident Bank Park. The Spartans have now won 10 straight games and 16-of-17 overall to improve to 32-11 on the season, with Bloomfield falling to 7-30.

After a scoreless first frame it was Bloomfield taking the early lead on Anthony Koban's deep shot to left off starter Kevin Rentas. Deacons counterpart Holvin Figureroa looked strong through two innings, but that changed drastically in the third.

Derek Hirsch hit the first pitch of the inning deep to right for a double, moved to third on a Mike Apreda fly out and scored in the process after an errant throw to tie the score. With two out, Nick Barbalato started a rally with a single, stole second and came in on Stanley Susana's RBI single. Russo would then take a 1-0 offering from Figueroa deep to left, with the monstrous shot hitting high off the left field video board to make the score 4-1.

Rentas labored in the fourth, giving up a pair of runs before giving way to Nick D'Angelo, who recorded a three-pitch strikeout to keep the hosts up by a run. STAC would answer quickly in the bottom half, with Efrain Bautista leading off with a single and Stephen Sunday drilling a two-run homer to make the score 6-3. A Mike Apreda double followed by a Rich Baerga run-scoring single put the Spartans up by four.

Once again, Bloomfield would battle back, pushing across three runs against D'Angelo in the fifth to cut the margin to 7-6. Russo would once again provide insurance in the bottom half, with his two-run shot not quite as far as the first, but still clearing the outer wall down the left field line at Provident Bank Park.

Bloomfield would tack on its final run in the seventh off reliever Jon Scott, but STAC would add two of their own for good measure with Sunday and Hirsch contributing consecutive RBI hits. Brian Tompkins and Dan Diaz combined to keep the visitors off the board the rest of the way.

Scott was credited with the win to improve to 4-0, with Russo driving in four runs and Sunday three to pace the offense. Each had two hits, along with Hirsch in the 12-hit performance.

St. Thomas Aquinas closes the regular season with three games at Provident Bank Park. On Friday, May 3, they will host Concordia College for a 3:00 double-header before taking on Dominican College in a noon start on Saturday, May 4. The Spartans have clinched the top seed for the East Coast Conference Tournament, which will be held May 9-11, but will be unable to host due to field availability.

Note - The Spartans moved up the the #3 ranking in the East Region in this week's NCBWA poll, their highest of the season. STAC also received national recognition for the first time, earning points in national polls from both the NCBWA and Collegiate Baseball, though they were just outside the top 30 in both.

The second official NCAA Division II Regional Rankings will be released on Wednesday - last week the Spartans were ranked #6 in the first NCAA poll of the season.