The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team took the opener of an East Coast Conference twin-bill, 7-1, before dropping the nightcap, 4-2 at Provident Bank Park. The Spartans now stand at 14-10 overall and 6-4 in the ECC, with Mercy now at 9-11, 6-3.

Matt Kostalos made his first start of the year for STAC and was perfect through three innings, retiring all nine Mercy batters. The Spartans brought home a pair in the bottom of the 2nd, with Kenny Kirshner's perfect bunt single bringing in one before an error plated an unearned marker to make it 2-0.

Mercy had just one hit through four innings, but drew to within 2-1 on an RBI double in the 5th. The Spartans would get some breathing room with three more runs in the 6th. CJ Ferriggi brought in an insurance run with a sac fly and Mike Apreda's big two-out, two run single brought in a couple more to make the score 5-1.

John DeAngelis came off the bench to provide a two-run single in the 8th to provide the final margin, seciring the win for Kostalos, who worked six strong innings. James Sanchez and Joe Ducoing came from the pen to work three scoreless innings and close out the victory. Kirshner would be the offensive star of the contest, with three hits.

Game two would turn into a thriller, despite the Mavericks grabbing a 4-0 lead after 3 1/2 innings and with starter Bryan Greig seeming well in control. STAC chipped away with a CJ Ferriggi sac fly in the 4th and a Rich Baerga RBI bunt single in the 5th to cut the margin to 4-2.

Mercy led off the 6th with a double, but Nick D'Angelo would enter in relief of Michael Gonzalez to strand the runner at third. The Spartans would threaten in the bottom half, putting the first two runners on but Greig would bear down to induce a double-play ball and secape any damage.

STAC would set the table in the bottom of the 7th and final inning, with Chris Goetz and Nick Gargan recording back-to-back singles with one out. Mike Apreda would make solid contact, but his rising line drive was snagged by second baseman Blake Hasbrouk for the second out.

With the Spartans' leading hitter Rich Baerga at the plate, a daring double-steal would put the tying runs in scoring position, but an infield grounder saw Baerga narrowly out at first to end the contest. Goetz and Susana had to hits each while Gonzalez suffered the loss.

After yesterday's rainout, the series shifts to Mercy tomorrow, where the originally scheduled game is now a double-dip, starting at 10:00 am. STAC will then play three single games at Provident Bank Park this week - Tuesday against the University of New Haven, Wednesday vs. Dominican College; and the start of an ECC set Friday with LIU-Post paying a call. All three games start at 3:30 pm.