The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team staved off elimination for the third straight game, defeating the University of Bridgeport, 6-2 in Game 6 of the East Coast Conference Tournament at Brookhaven, NY. STAC improved to 38-12 with the win, with Bridgeport dropping to 22-25.

Batting as the visitors for tournament Game 6, the Spartans jumped in front early. With two out and nobody on, Purple Knights starter Chris Maull saw Stanley Susana single and Mike Russo lace a double deep to right to make the score 1-0. STAC tacked on another in the third when Nick Barbalato singled, advanced to third on a Susana single and scored on a Russo grounder.

Spartans starter Joe DePool was in charge early, retiring the first 11 Bridgeport batters and keeping the score 2-0 into the fifth. The top seed would add to its lead in the fifth on a Susana lead-off double, eventually coming home on Ken Kirshner's sacrifice fly. STAC would tack on two more in the top of the sixth, but the damage could have been much worse.

Stephen Sunday led off with a double, followed by a Derek Hirsch RBI single, with Hirsch advancing to second on an error by right fielder Jose-Luis Garcia. Frank Salerno's fly to left was booted by Brian Kondor, with Hirsch stopping at third. After a Salerno stolen base and a Nick Barbalato strike out, Bridgeport rolled the dice, walking Stanley Susana to pitch to Mike Russo, who brought in a third RBI with a sac fly, but the Spartans would strand two, settling for a 5-0 lead.

That looked tenuous when the Purple Knights plated a pair of unearned markers in the bottom of the sixth. Jesse Solar led off with a grounder to third, but Susana's errant throw, advancing Solar all the way to third. With one out, Kondor singled to third, with Susana gunning down Solar at the plate for the second out. The damage was not totally averted, as John Ascenzia singled and both runners came in on Mike Olszyk's two-run double, cutting the deficit to 5-2.

The rest of the afternoon would belong to DePool, who allowed just one base hit over the final three innings, retiring the last five batters faced. Frank Salerno's RBI double, scoring Nick D'Angelo in the top of the ninth provided an insurance run as the Spartans held on for their third straight win.

Both teams now advance to Tournament Game 7, with the winner capturing the East Coast Conference baseball crown. The tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Baseball Tournament.