The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team completed a four-game East Coast Conference series sweep with a 5-3 victory over Mercy College at Provident Bank Park. Robert Naughton ran his record to 3-0 while C.J. Ferriggi earned his league-leading fifth save as the Spartans won their sixth straight to improve to 22-10, 11-5, while Mercy dropped to 6-27-1, 3-13. Combined with Queens' loss to Bridgeport, STAC regained possession of first place in the ECC standings.
After unleashing an 18-hit attach the day before, the Spartans picked up where they left off in the very first inning with a two-out rally. Stanley Susana drew a walk and scored on ECC Player-of-the-Week Mike Russo's deep triple off the center field fence. Russo would make the score 2-0, trotting home on a wild pitch.
Mercy quickly cut into that deficit in the second, plating a run on a pair of hits off starter Rob Naughton, who would keep the visitors off the board any further through five innings. STAC regained the two-run lead in the last of the fifth on Stanley Susana's sac fly, bringing home Mike Apreda.
Once again, the Mavericks would answer quickly, staging a two-out rally of their own with a double and run-scoring signal cutting their deficit to 3-2. Ken Kirshner would bring home an insurance run on the back end of a double-steal attempt to make the score 4-2.
The visitors would keep the pressure on with a run in the eighth, but with two out and the tying run on base, Ferriggi came on to escape further damage. Rich Baerga would remain one of the hottest bats in the conference, with his second hit of the day bringing in Kirshner to reestablish the two-run margin at 5-3. Ferriggi would return to work a scoreless ninth to lock down the save, while Naughton improved to 3-0 and sees his earned run average in his freshman season stand at an impressive 2.08.
STAC will return to Provident Bank Park - where they have won 10 their last 11 games - on Wednesday, April 17, for a rivalry showdown against nearby Dominican College in a 3:00 pm start. On Friday, the Spartans start a weekend set by traveling to LIU-Post before hosting Wounded Warrior Day on Saturday for a noon double-dip.