The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team extended its season with a 6-1 win over top seeded host Southern New Hampshire University at the NCAA East Regional. Rob Frank withstood a rain delay to throw a complete game as the Spartans improve to 35-16 on the season, dropping the Penmen to 40-13.
In other East Regional action, CACC champ and #6 seed Felician stayed alive, eliminating Franklin Pierce University with a 5-0 shutout in tournament Game 4. With STAC's victory over Southern New Hampshire in tournament Game 5, both teams now have one loss, meaning the tournament shifts to the bracket with five teams remaining.
***UPDATE*** Despite the threat of heavy rains, Game 6 was played as scheduled, with #5 Dowling College defeating #3 Wilmington University by a 6-1 count, giving East Coast Conference teams a 3-1 record in this year's tournament to date.
On Saturday's slate, Game 7 will start the day, featuring an elimination contest between Southern New Hampshire and Wilmington, starting at 11:00 am. Game 8 will see STAC taking on Felician, also in an elimination contest, slated to start at 3:00 pm. And Game 9 will wrap up the third day of action with Dowling, the only remaining undefeated team, squaring off with the winner of Game 7 between SNHU and Wilmington.
If the Spartans win Game 8 on Saturday, they advance to the final day of competition, participating in Game 10 at 12:00 noon Sunday. *** END UPDATE***
Weather contingencies notwithstanding, the Spartans entered today's affair needing a win to extend their season, and they handed the ball to their all-time winningest pitcher in Frank. With SNHU batting first per NCAA Tournament rules, the day got off to an inauspicious start for STAC.
Manny Cruz stroked a one-out single and CJ Ferriggi was unable to handle Al Stanton's grounder, putting two runners on. Riley Palmer put the Penmen on top with a single to right, but Frank would escape further damage and assume control from there.
Runs in NCAA Tournamment games have been hard to come by for the Spartans, plating only one over their first three games dating back to last season, all losses. That would come to an end on one big swing of the bat in the last of the 3rd inning.
Stephen Sunday led off with a single and Deven Del Priore put in a bid with a warning track fly out to left field off starter Tim Viehoff. Two pitches later, Nick D'Angelo turned on a 1-0 offering, sending it deep over the leftfield fence and giving St. Thomas Aquinas its first ever lead in NCAA Tournament competition.
The inning was not over as Stanley Susana ripped the next pitch down the third base line for a double and moved to third on a wild pitch, before coming home on Rich Baerga's perfect safety squeeze single down the first base line, making the score 3-1.
Frank began to find a rhythm, allowing just one more hit over the next four innings as the rain began falling in Manchester. In the bottom of the 5th, D'Angelo was the catalyst yet again, starting the inning with a single and advancing on Susana's sacrifice bunt. Kenny Kirshner followed with a walk but the rain intensified, forcing the tarp onto the field.
After a 64 minute rain delay, play resumed and on the very first pitch, Coach Scott Muscat put the pressure on with a successful double steal, moving runners to second and third with one down. Rich Baerga would tap back to the mound for the second out, but Derek Hirsch's grounder was thrown away by shortstop Manny Cruz, bringing in two unearned runs for a 5-1 gap.
Despite the long delay, Frank returned to the mound to start the 6th inning and caused concern by issuing a leadoff walk to Mike Mastroberti. That concern was short-lived, however, as Frank found the zone in a big way, striking out the next three batters to end the frame.
A one out bunt single in the top of the 7th caused no trouble for the STAC right-hander and his teammates would build another insurance run in the bottom half, starting with Kenny Kirshner's single. Baerga bunted him to second and Derek Hirsch did the trick, lining an RBI single into right-centerfield to make the score 6-1.
That would prove to be more than enough for Frank, who retired the last six SNHU batters in order, striking out the side in the ninth inning despite a pitch count that hit 142 in all. With the victory, Frank picked up his 18th career victory, improving to 5-2 on the season, scattering four hits while striking out 13 and walking just three. Viehoff, who lasted just 2.1 innings, took the loss to fall to 5-3 overall.