The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team scored two runs in the bottom of the 9th to defeat Dominican College, 8-7 at Provident Bank Park. CJ Ferriggi drove in the winning run with a walk-off single, giving the Spartans their 8th stright win to improve their overall record to 11-5. With the tough loss, Dominican dropped to 5-8.

Dominican broke on top in the 1st inning with an unearned marker off STAC starter Rob Naughton, only to see the Spartans tie the score in the bottom half on Stanley Susana's RBI double.

STAC grabbed the lead in the second when Joe Boland's infield hit was then misplayed, allowing Derek Hirsch to score. With two down, Omar Cuevas knocked in another run with a hit, and ECC Player-of-the-Week Rich Baerga also came through with a run-scoring single to make the score 4-1.

That lead would not last as the Chargers roared ahead with four runs in the top of the 5th to grab a one-run lead. Deven Del Priore's sacrifice fly in the 6th tied the score, but again Dominican would come back, plating a pair off John Bednarek. STAC drew to within 6-5 when Susana's infield hit brought in Baerga. Susana would end the day with a single, double, and triple and three RBI while Baerga rapped out three hits in his own right.

Bednarek would settle in and keep the score there, allowing his team to post the winning rally in the final frame. Pinch hitter Stephen Sunday reached on an error leading off, and the door was opened for the Spartans. Baerga advanced pinch runner Juan Adorno with a sacrifice, and Nick D'Angelo moved him to third with a single.

Susana would tie the game on a sacrifice fly to right and on the errant throw home, D'Angelo moved into scoring position. That base would prove costly for Dominican, as Ferriggi would rap an 0-2 offering back through the box, scoring D'Angelo and touching off a wild celebration by the Spartans in their Provident Bank Park home opener.

Bednarek picked up the win in relief, as the Spartan offense came up big with eight different players accounting for 15 total hits for the team ranked #7 in this week's NCBWA Regional Poll.

The Spartans are now off until Friday, March 28, when they begin a four-game East Coast Conference set with Molloy College. STAC will travel on Friday, host a noon double-header at Provident Bank Park on Saturday, and finish the set back on Long Island on Sunday.