The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team jumped out to an early lead and held on for a 6-4 victory at Felician College, extending their winning streak to eight games. CJ Ferriggi picked up his 8th save of the season as the Spartans improved to 28-12 with the victory, while Felician had its four-game win streak snapped in falling to 26-18.

During their recent winning streak the STAC offense has been dialed in and they kept that momentum going in the opening inning. With one out, Nick Gargan was hit by a pitch and Derek Hirsch followed with a single. Kenny Kirshner and Stanley Susana followed with RBI singles to put the visitors up a pair.

A two-out error brought Kirshner in to score and Nick D'Angelo drove in another with a base hit to give the Spartans a quick 4-0 lead. The score would remain that way until, with the bases loaded in the 5th, Nick Gargan would plate another with a ground out and STAC had a 5-0 gap.

Starter Matthew Petro was in charge, allowing just three hits over the first five scoreless innings of work but the Golden Falcons would score an unearned run and load the bases with one out in the 6th, before Petro induced an inning-ending double-play ball.

Two more hits in the 7th chased Petro from the box and Brian Tompkins took the hill, allowing one of the runners to score to cut the lead to 5-2 before escaping further damage. STAC's offense was suddenly stuck in neutral as the hosts utilized a pair of hits and another Spartan error to push across a pair of 8th inning runs, drawing to within 5-4 and leaving the tying run at third with two down.

That would set the stage for Ferriggi, who moved over from his third base position to record a strikeout and end the threat. He would help his own cause in the top of the 9th, leading off with a double and scoring a big insurance run on a wild pitch before returning to the mound to close out the final frame in impressive fashion, adding two more strikeouts to his total.

Hirch, the ECC Player of the Week, and Ferriggi had two hits apiece, while Petro improved to 2-1 with the victory.

The Spartans will now turn their attention to the final weekend of the regular season, which culminates with a big East Coast Conference series against Dowling College with first place at stake. The showdown starts on Friday, May 2 at Provident Bank Park with first pitch set for 3:30 pm. It then shifts to Brookhaven for a twin-bill at noon Saturday, before wrapping up in Pomona in a 1:00 Sunday start.

St. Thomas Aquinas enters the weekend three games behind the Golden Lions in the ECC standings, needing a sweep to secure the conference's top seed. Both teams have already clinched berths to the ECC Tournament, which will be held from May 8-10.