The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team rapped out 18 hits - including a Mike Russo grand slam - to claim a 15-4 East Coast Conference win over Mercy College at Provident Bank Park. STAC hosted Bat for a Cure Day, raising funds and promoting prostate cancer awareness. With the victory, the Spartans improve to 21-10, 10-5, with Mercy falling to 6-24-1, 3-12.

As part of a special community initiative, St. Thomas Aquinas has declared this "Bat for a Cure" weekend, and the Spartans sported powder blue wristbands, socks and special blue baseball bats, while a concession table sold bandanas to raise money for the worthy cause.

After being shut out over 14 innings in a twin-bill just 24 hours earlier, it was the visiting Mavericks that drew first blood against starter Joe DePool, stringing together three hits to take a 2-0 lead in the top of the second.

That lead was short-lived, however, as STAC roared back in the bottom half. Ken Kirshner led off with a double and came around on a Derek Hirsch single. Rich Baerga tied the score with his second triple in as many days, and trotted home on a Mike Apreda sac fly to give the hosts a lead they would not relinquish.

STAC added a pair in the third on RBI ground-outs from Kirshner and Russo, and put the game out of reach in the fourth. With the bases loaded, Stanley Susana drew a walk to make the score 6-2, and Russo hammered a 2-1 offering deep into the bleachers in right center to clear the bases and give the Spartans a 10-2 margin.

Just one inning later, Russo would again come to the plate with the bases full, but this time he would settle for a walk and his sixth RBI of the afternoon. Kirshner added a two-RBI hit and Hirsch contributed a sacrifice fly as St. Thomas Aquinas threw it into cruise control from there.

DePool allowed just the two runs on six hits over six innings of work to improve to 4-1 on the season. Nick Barbalato and Susana each recorded three hits and scored three times in the offensive outburst.

The four-game conference series returns to Provident Bank Park for the finale tomorrow, April 15, in a 4:00 pm start. Please note the revised start time.