Rich Baerga went 6-for-6 to lead the St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team to a 14-4 East Coast Conference victory over the University of Bridgeport at Provident Bank Park. The Spartans took three of four in the weekend series to improve to 15-7, 6-2 while Bridgeport fell to 6-11, 1-3.
After seeing their five-game winning streak snapped at Bridgeport on Saturday, the Spartans wasted no time jumping in front in the series finale. Baerga led off the bottom of the first with his first single, followed by Ken Kirshner, who had the first of his four hits on the afternoon to set the table. Both would come around to score, and an inning later, Baerga's second hit would drive in the first of his four RBIs to put STAC in a 3-0 lead.
Bridgeport answered with an unearned run off starter Robert Naughton in the third, but the hosts would rap out six hits, plating four runs in their half to open a 7-1 gap. Mike Russo's booming two-run triple to right was the big hit of the rally, along with RBI singles from Baerga and Mike Apreda.
In the fourth, the Purple Knights would push a run across, but in the next frame Baerga would match it, driving home yet another run with his fourth single in the first five innings of play. Bridgeport would push across another in the sixth, but that was all they would get against Naughton, who left having allowed just two earned runs on five hits in seven innings.
STAC added three more in the seventh to expand the margin to 11-3, with Baerga again sparking the rally by leading off with hit number five. Pinch-hitter Felipe Campusano would close that rally with an RBI single, but the day's drama wasn't over just yet.
Despite being in the driver's seat, reliever Michael Donellan stuggled in the eighth, failing to retire any of the four Purple Knights he faced. With the visitors threatening to get back into the game, Nick May emerged from the bullpen with a stellar performance, fanning the next three batters in order to quell the uprising and strand the bases loaded.
By the time the Spartans posted a trio of unearned runs in the last of the eighth, there was little suspense remaining in terms of the outcome, but Baerga would provide excitement with his sixth hit of the afternoon, an RBI single. Kirshner and Stephen Sunday would add run-scoring hits as STAC pulled away.
Naughton improved to 2-0 but saw his amazing string of scoreless innings from the start of his freshman season end at 20.1 frames. His season ERA "ballooned" to 0.75 with the two earned runs. Sunday also added three hits for St. Thomas Aquinas, which peppered a trio of Purple Knights starters for a total of 24 hits.
The Spartans return to Provident Bank Park this Wednesday, April 3, for a non-conference tilt against Caldwell College starting at 3:00 pm, followed by a weekend series against Molloy College that starts at PBP on Friday, April 5, also at 3:00 pm.