The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team banged out 14 hits en route to a 9-2 victory over Bloomfield College at Provident Bank Park. Matt Petro worked seven dominant innings for the win, the Spartans' 14th in their last 17 games, improving to 19-9-1 overall, while Bloomfield fell to 3-22.

STAC broke on top in the second, starting with Brandon Fischer's booming triple, followed by a wild pitch to put the hosts on the board. Rich Baerga's bunt single later in the inning scored Rich Cesca, Jr., and Joseph Pena added an RBI hit.

Petro retired his first eight Bears opponents to the plate, but that string was broken up in rude fashion with Anthony Lantigua's homer to left, to cut the gap to 3-1. STAC would pull away in the middle innings, beginning with two in the fifth.

Deven Del Priore led off with a hit and came all the way around on Baerga's RBI double, with Baerga later scoring on a Nick Gargan sac fly. Three more runs in the sixth would blow the game open, as Del Priore, Baerga, and Pena each provided run-scoring hits.

Aside from the homer, Petro would yield just a fourth inning single, throwing just 65 pitches over his seven innings of work, fanning two without a walk while facing just two batters over the minimum.

Giovanni Dingcong's run scoring double in the seventh closed out the Spartan scoring, which was more than enough despite Bloomfield's last-inning score. Petro's victory was his first decision of the season with Pena and Baerga rapping out three hits apiece. Baerga fell short of the cycle only by the home run, accounting for a single, double and triple in the contest.

Among the few down notes of the day, Stanley Susana failed to reach base in his four appearances, snapping a lengthy streak. The senior had reached in all 26 of his games this season, with an overall total of 32 dating back to last season. Susana was in the on deck circle when STAC's final out of the day was recorded.

The Spartans will try to extend their streak of seven victories in as many games at Provident Bank Park this season (six as home team, one as visitors against Nyack), when they host Pace University on Thursday in a 3:30 pm start. The first-place Spartans enjoy a conference by this weekend, but they would be far from idle, playing back to back double-headers against Concordia. Saturday's double will be played in Bronxville, with the final two shifting to PBP on Sunday, with both pair set to start at noon.