The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team saw St. Anselm's College rally to a 6-5 win before rebounding for a 5-2 decision in the nightcap at Baseball Heaven in Yaphank, NY on Saturday.

Rob Naughton posted six strong innings despite not figuring in the decision the the opener while the Spartans utilized a rally of their own with four unearned runs in the fifth inning to take the back end. With the split as the Spartans stand at 4-5 overall, with St. A's moving to 6-8 on the season.

STAC jumped out to an early lead in game one when CJ Ferriggi plated Rich Baerga on a sac fly, followed by Derek Hirsch's RBI single, bringing in Kenny Kirshner. Hirsch came through again in the third, with his single bringing Stanley Susana around to make the score 3-0.

Naughton was in control through five strong innings, allowing just two hits, before being touched for a pair of St. Anselm runs in the 6th. The Spartans answered with one in the bottom half, when Omar Cuevas led off with a walk and came all the way in on a Stephen Sunday double to put STAC back up by a pair.

Reliever Matt Kostalos struggled in the seventh, as all five batters he faced reached base on three walks and a pair of hits. Despite Brian Tompkins coming in to put out the fire, four runs came across to give St. Anselm's a 6-4 lead. Ferriggi brought the Spartans within one in the last of the 7th with another sac fly, but that would end the scoring as David Kent would work three innings of one-hit ball to earn the save.

Game two was almost a mirror image, as STAC's Michael Gonzalez locked up with St. A's hurler Clayton Welch, with Hawks DH Matt Wojichowski's homer in the 4th accounting for the only run of the game heading to the bottom of the 5th.

This time it was the Spartans who would come through with the late two-out rally. With the bases loaded and two down, Susana singled home Cuevas to tie the score. Ferriggi followed with an RBI walk to put STAC on top and bring Welch's day to an end, giving way to Christopher Bunero, who did not fare much better.

A wild pitch proceeded to score Rich Baerga, and a fielding error let Susana score, putting the Spartans in a 4-1 lead. St. Anselm would scratch out a run against reliever Eric Cooper, but Ferriggi would come on in relief to close the door. STAC added a run in the bottom of the 6th on a Baerga single, and Ferriggi would leave two on in the final frame to earn the save. Gonzalez earned the win, his first for St. Thomas Aquinas.