The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team looks to defend its NCAA East Regional Championship in their third straight appearance. The double-elimination tournament opens Thursday at 11:00, with #6 seeded STAC taking on the #1 seeded hosts from Franklin Pierce University. The ECC Champion Spartans take a 27-17-1 record into the tilt with the Northeast-10 Conference champs, who stand at 46-2 and are one of the nation's top-ranked teams.

Other first day action on Thursday will see the other ECC contingent from Dowling College take their #5 seed against #2 ranked Stonehill College at 3:00 pm, while the CACC Champs from Wilmington University carries the #4 seed into the 7:00 pm tilt with #3 Southern New Hampshire University.

Each of the six teams will also play on Friday, with time and opponents to be determined based on Thursday's result. If the Spartans win on Thursday, they will play at 3:00 Friday against the Wilmington-SNHU loser; if STAC loses to FPU on Thursday, they will play an elimination game at 11:00 am Friday against the Dowling-Stonehill loser.

After struggling to the finish line in the regular season, dropping seven of their last nine games, St. Thomas Aquinas picked up its game to earn the ECC title for the third straight season. In each of the prior campaigns, STAC dropped its first game before winning four straight, but this time they would take the easier course.

Starting pitching was the story of the weekend as the Spartans swept three contests, beating Bridgeport, LIU Post, and Bridgeport again. Matt Kostolos, Nick May, and Anthony Morris hurled complete-games, respectively, with Morris' stellar outing in the championship clincher earning the tourney's Most Outstanding Player honors.

This also marks the third straight year that STAC will travel to New Hampshire for the NCAA Regionals, which were hosted in Manchester by Southern New Hampshire University the past two seasons before transferring to Franklin Pierce in Rindge this year.

A lot of familiar faces will square off this weekend, as five of the six regional squads participated a year ago, with only Stonehill replacing Felician College as a new entry. Last season's regional final saw the ECC combatants take center stage, with St. Thomas Aquinas taking a pair from Dowling to close things out.

For full schedule, pairings, team and tourney info, click here for the East Regional Tournament Central.