The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team dropped the opener of its four-game East Coast Conference series against Molloy College, 17-2 at Provident Bank Park. The Spartans remain in first place in the ECC standings, despite dropping to 6-3 in league play (16-8 overall). Molloy improved to 11-18, 5-3 with the decisive win.

Starter Joe DePool got the afternoon off on the right foot, working a seven-pitch first inning while the Spartans grabbed a 1-0 lead on a Mike Russo RBI grounder in the bottom half. Molloy would tie the game with an unearned run in the second, but the floodgates would open in the third.

A streak of wildness from DePool set the table, and the visitors had grabbed a 3-1 edge when Juan Borbon blasted a bases-clearing triple to center field, driving in three runs and giving the visitors more than enough runs for the day.

That would not satisfy the Lions, who added runs in each of the next four innings, making STAC's lone marker on a Chris Goetz RBI single in the ninth academic. Stanley Susana led St. Thomas Aquinas with three hits with Efrain Bautista adding two, while DePool was tagged with his first loss of the season to fall to 3-1.

Fortunately for the Spartans, the game counts as just one loss and they will look for redemption when they travel to Long Island for a twin-bill against Molloy on Saturday, starting at noon. That double-header will be played at SUNY-Stony Brook, with the weekend finale moving back to Provident Bank Park on Sunday, April 7, at 1:00 pm.