The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team captured a 4-3 East Coast Conference victory over Mercy College on the strength of Christian Santo's walk-off double in the 9th. Anthony Morris worked the complete game for the win as the Spartans improved to 7-6-1 overall, 4-3 in the ECC, dropping Mercy to 4-11, 1-4. The game was played at Mercy College with STAC serving as the home team.

St. Thomas Aquinas struck first, plating three runs off Mercy's Matt Nalborne in the bottom of the third. Stanley Susana continued his hot hitting with a two-run single and later came around to make the score 3-0 on Derek Hirsch's RBI single.

Morris, meanwhile, was in charge through the first six, yielding only a fourth inning run when Matt Hagan led off with a triple and scored on a grounder. The Mavericks would tie the contest in the seventh, however, when Bryan Gutierrez circled the bases on a two-run inside the park homer to left center.

Starters Nalborne and Morris continued their battle into the ninth, when the Spartans came through with the winner. Rich Cesca led off with a single and gave way to pinch runner Juan Adorno, who advanced to second on a Brandon Fischer sacrifice. Santo would do the rest, finding the gap in right center to drive home the deciding tally.

Morris allowed just five hits in improving to 2-0 with the win, while Nalborne fell to 1-2 with the tough setback. Joseph Pena and Nick Gargan added two hits apiece for the Spartans.

These teams return to action to continue their four game set with a twin-bill at Mercy on Saturday, March 28, starting at noon. The finale is set for Sunday at 1:00 pm and will also be played at Mercy with STAC batting last.