The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team rallied from an early deficit and held on to defeat LIU Post, 4-3, in an East Coast Conference contest at Provident Bank Park. Matt Kostalos worked six strong innings to pick up the win as the Spartans improved to 19-10 overall and 9-4 in ECC play. Post dropped to 10-9, 4-4 with the loss.

Kostolos struggled at the outset, with the first three Post batters recording singles and STAC falling into an early 2-0 hole. They drew even in the last of the 2nd, when Nick D'Angelo's single brought in Chris Goetz, and Rich Baerga followed with a double to bring home D'Angelo and deadlock the score.

After the shaky start, Kostolos would settle in and work five scoreless frames, giving his offense a chance to claim the lead, which they did in the bottom of the 5th.

With one out, Stephen Sunday doubled in Stanley Susana to give the Spartans their first lead of the day, and Sunday would trot home on Derek Hirsch's double down the line to make the score 4-2.

Brian Tompkins and Nick D'Angelo would combine to keep the score there until the 9th when closer CJ Ferriggi was called from his position at third base to the hill. With limited opportunity to warm up, Ferriggi yielded two hits and a walk to his first three batters, putting the Pioneers back within one run with the go-ahead runs on base.

Ferriggi showed why he is the conference's premier closer, settling in to induce a pair of foul outs to catcher Sunday, and a fly out to center to lock down his 7th save of the season. Kostolos improved to 2-1 on the campaign, allowing just the two first inning tallies in his six innings of work.

The next two games of this four-game weekend series shift to Long Island, as LIU Post hosts a double-dip tomorrow, Saturday, April 12, starting at noon. The set wraps up back in Rockland County on Sunday, with a single game at Provident Bank Park starting at 1:00 pm.