The St. Thomas Aquinas baseball team lost its opener in the NCAA Division II Baseball Tournament East Regional, falling to Wilmington University by a 4-0 count. The Spartans face elimination against Southern New Hampshire at 1:00 pm Friday. With the loss, #4 seed STAC drops to 34-16 overall, while #3 Wilmington improves to 35-9-1.

Wilmington scored four runs in the fourth inning against STAC starter Matt Kostolos and the pitching did the rest, as starter Jesse Long went seven strong innings before turning the ball over to Nick Marics and Tyler Fries, who worked a scoreless inning each.

STAC was the first to threaten in the contest, with Deven Del Priore, Joe Boland, and Nick D'Angelo each recording singles to load the bases with one out. Omar Cuevas followed with a short fly to left that did not advance the runners, and Kenny Kirshner struck out to end the threat.

It was Wilmington that would provide the only runs of the evening, doing so in the last of the 3rd inning. Josh Swirchack sent a short fly to right that landed in front of a diving Nick D'Angelo for a double, and after a sacrifice, Josh Hampton's liner to center dropped in front of Rich Baerga's dive, for a run-scoring double.

Matt Lopes singled and Sam Goings followed with an RBI hit, putting the Wildcats up by a pair. With two down, ground singles by Kyle Lindstrom and Mike Annone each plated runs, giving Wilmington a commanding 4-0 lead.

St. Thomas Aquinas threatened Long again in the 4th, with CJ Ferriggi and Joe Boland posting one out singles, followed by a Nick D'Angelo walk. As in the 2nd inning, a Cuevas fly ball proved to shallow to plate a run, and Kirshner followed with a pop to the infiled, ending what proved to be the Spartans' last threat of the evening.

Long settled down to retire 10 straight STAC batters, holding the top of the Spartans order to 0-for-12 at the plate on the evening. Kostolos came on strong after his rough inning, working seven innings, allowing eight hits while striking out seven batters.

Southern New Hampshire advances in the winner's bracket after defeating Felician College, 9-3, in the tournament opener. If the Spartans win Friday's Game 5, they will remain alive in the tournament and play in tournament Game 8 on Saturday at 3:00 pm. If STAC loses, they will be eliminated from the tournament.