The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team led all East Coast Conference schools with 10 post-season award recipients. First Team selections included Kenny Kirshner, Rich Baerga, Stanley Susana, Nick D'Angelo, Derek Hirsch, and CJ Ferriggi. Second Team honors were bestowed upon Stephen Sunday, Nick Gargan, Mike Apreda, and Rob Frank.
St. Thomas Aquinas finished the regular season with a 30-14 record, the third straight season they have hit the 30-win plateau. Their 10 All-Conference selections was the top total among ECC schools, with Dowling placing seven players. The Spartans will carry the #2 seed into their defense of the ECC Championship starting Thursday at 3:00 pm against #3 seed Molloy College.
Familiar Spartan faces dotted the ECC post-season honor roll, starting with outfielder Rich Baerga, who led the loop in batting average with a .362 mark, earning his second straight First Team award.
Stanley Susana, the ECC's 2012 Rookie of the Year as a third baseman, has moved his act to shortstop the the result has remained the same, with the junior taking his third consecutive First Team slot.
For the second straight season, CJ Ferriggi established himself as the ECC's permier closer and his 15 saves over that span has already set his place in the STAC record books. He also batted .311 in 106 at bats as a designated hitter and third baseman.
After earning a slot on the Second Team a year ago, Derek Hirsch slugged his way onto the First Team this season, with his .356 batting average joining several other offensive categories in which he was among the league's elite.
Despite leading the league in hits a season ago, Kenny Kirshner settled for Second Team kudos but he also ascended to the top ranks this season, not only with his offensive prowess but also with his slick flashing of the leather around the first base bag.
While Nick D'Angelo had trouble breaking into a formidable STAC outfield a year ago, this season he would not be denied, as his .352 batting average was good enough to make the First Team and also had a hand in the Spartans' league-leading .308 batting average. The senior also contributed from the bullpen with eight relief appearances.
Rob Frank was a first team selection last season but while an early-season injury got him off to a late start, STAC's all-time win's leader (16) still went pitch-for-pitch with the ECC's best in the season's final weeks. Catcher Stephen Sunday took home his second straight Second Team honor, earning it at the catcher's position this year after being tapped as a DH in 2013.
Nick Gargan and Mike Apreda, also victims of the numbers game a year ago, took similar paths to their respective Second Team selections. Each battled his way into the lineup in the season's waning weeks, and both had a big part in the late-season surge that has seen the Spartans win nine of their last 11 games entering the ECC Tournament.