The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team earned a decisive 8-0 victory in an East Coast Conference tilt at LIU Post. Giovanni Dingcong hit his league-leading fourth homer and Matt Kostolos worked seven scoreless innings as STAC improved to 13-7-1 overall and 9-3 in conference play, while post slipped to 9-9, 7-5.

STAC captured three of four games in the series, and the Spartans have now won 8-of-9 games overall. In addition, at the midway mark of their 24-game ECC schedule, the Spartans sit in first place, 1.5 games ahead of both Dowling and Bridgeport and 2.0 games ahead of LIU Post. For the latest ECC standings, click here.

A pitchers' duel was in store through three scoreless innings as Kostolos matched blanks with Pioneer starter Dan Jagiello. STAC would break through first thanks to the bat of their big freshman. With one out in the top of the fourth, Stanley Susana walked and Jonathan McGugan singled. Dingcong followed with a three-run shot to left, which would prove to be all the scoring the Spartans would need.

STAC added a run in the sixth when Rich Cesca was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Kostolos would keep the hosts in check, yielding just four hits and walking two while fanning 10 Pioneers in his seven frames of work. Brandon Fisher came through with a bases loaded hit in a four-run eighth as the Spartans broke the game open.

McGugan had three hits and Dingcong added two to pace the Spartan offense, while Kostolos improved to 3-2 on the season with the victory. STAC earned shutouts in the final two games of the series, blanking and outscoring LIU Post by a 14-0 count over the final 18 innings of competition.

Important schedule note - Tomorrow's scheduled home game against Adelphi has now been moved and will be a road contest starting at 3:30 pm. The Spartans return to Provident Bank Park for a Saturday double-header on April 11 as part of a four-game ECC set against Queens College.