The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team took an 11-7 victory before settling for a 3-3 tie in the nightcap against Stonehill College in Winter Park, FL. The Spartans are now unbeaten in four straight, improving to 3-2-1 on the season while Stonehill dropped to 9-4-1.
John DeAngelis' grand slam capped a five-run sixth inning in the opener as the Spartans held on for the victory. Nick Gargan totaled four hits in the 15-hit Spartan attack, and Matt Kostolos earned his first victory of the season in relief.
In the nightcap, Anthony Morris had a strong outing, carring a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh only to see Stonehill rally to tie and send the game to extra innings. The Spartans were the victims of Mother Nature as, having pushed across the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth, STAC was just two outs from victory when Florida rains ended the affair. By rule, the game reverted back to the last completed inning, forcing the 3-3 tie.
After two scoreless innings in the opener, the Spartans hit the board first on Stanley Susana's RBI grounder and Joe Pena's run-scoring double. The bats would heat up in the middle innings, with STAC combining for eight runs over the fifth and sixth innings.
DeAngelis plated a pair with a pinch hit sac fly, and Rich Cesca brought in two more with a fifth inning double to create a 5-0 lead. One inning later, Omar Cuevas would drive in a run with a bases-loaded walk, and DeAngelis would strike the big blow with the grand slam, as the Spartans took command at 10-0. The Skyhawks would chip away in the closing innings but it was not enough as the Spartans won their third straight.
Game two saw STAC again jump on top, this time with a pair in the first on a Susana sac fly and a fielding error. Stonehill answered with one in the bottom half off Anthony Morris, but the sophomore settled in and did not give up another run through six innings.
Giovanni Dingcong's sacrifice fly in the fifth put STAC in a 3-1 lead, which they held into the last inning of the scheduled seven-inning contest. Stonehill would stage a two-out rally however, knocking a tiring Morris out of the box and scoring the tying run on a wild pitch by reliever Maurizio Davita, sending the game to extras.
After a scoreless eighth, Brandon Fischer's two-out RBI single appeared to give the Spartans the lead in the ninth, but with one out and nobody on in the Stonehill half, the rains came, cancelling the top half and creating the tie. Dingcong and Nick Gargan registered two hits apiece, while Morris allowed two earned runs and just four hits over 6.2 innings of work.
The Spartans close out their Florida sojurn against Stonehill on Thursday, March 12, in an 11:00 am start. (Please note - upcoming schedule subject to change pending field availablility. Please check back for updates).