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STAC Surges past Molloy, 10-1; Advances to Final Day of ECC Baseball Tournament

STAC Surges past Molloy, 10-1; Advances to Final Day of ECC Baseball Tournament
Posted: May 10, 2013

The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team surged into the final day of the East Coast Conference Tournament with a 10-1 victory over Molloy College at Golden Lions field. The Spartans play Bridgeport tomorrow for the ECC Championship. If Bridgeport wins, they will take the conference title. If STAC wins, the teams will play again with the victor taking home the championship.

STAC improved to 37-12 with the win, while Molloy's season came to a close with a 24-27 record. St. Thomas Aquinas lost yesterday's opener to Bridgeport, 7-3, and defeated Molloy earlier today before advancing with this win. Molloy defeated Dowling 6-0 yesterday before suffering losses to Bridgeport, 8-2, and STAC.

After leading the league in runs scored, the top-seeded Spartans struggled to put markers on the board in their first two tournament bouts, but would have no such trouble in the third. Frank Salerno tripled to lead off the game and came in on a Stanley Susana single in the first, and Rich Baerga came home on Derek Hirsch's sac fly in the second to give the Spartans a 2-0 lead.

Lions starter Anthony Eichorn would continue to struggle in his third and final inning of work, with STAC pushing across three more tallies. After a Nick Barbalato walk and a Mike Russo double, Barbalato scored on a passed ball. Efrian Bautista and Rich Baerga folllwed with RBIs to put the Spartans up by a handful.

Meanwhile, Spartan starter Eric Cooper was well in control against the #3 seed, keeping his foes off the board while his teammated padded their lead with a pair in the fifth on Efrian Bautista's two-run homer. 

Three more runs in the sixth would be more than enough for STAC, with Frank Salerno, Susana and Russo each driving in runs to give their team a 10-0 edge. Molloy got one back in the last of the seventh when Juan Borbon tripled in Erik Pyle, but Cooper would allow just six hits over eight strong innings to improve his record to 3-3, with Joe Grimaldi working a scoreless ninth. Eichorn, the first of seven Lions pitchers to see action, fell to 4-4 with the loss.