The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team rallied with two in the home 10th inning to defeat Felician College, 9-8 at Provident Bank Park. Stanley Susana's pinch-hit, two-run single was the difference as the Spartans improved to 22-10-1 overall, with Felician falling to 16-24. STAC has now won 17 of its last 21 games, including a dominant 10-1 record at Provident Bank Park.

STAC rallied from an early 5-1 deficit to hold a 7-6 lead late, but Felician rallied to tie the game and take the lead in the top of the 10th. The Spartans loaded the bases in the bottom half before an ailing Susana came off the bench to deliver the game-winning line single to left-center.

Felician pushed across a run in the first and two more in the second to take an early lead. Juan Adorno's RBI infield-single got the Spartans on the board, but the Golden Falcons tacked on a pair of unearned markers in the third to take a four-run lead.

Deven Del Priore trimmed the gap to 5-2 with an RBI single in the bottom of the third, and Brandon Fischer and Rich Baerga brought in tallies later in that frame, cutting the margin to 5-4. Felician added another marker in the fourth, only to be matched by Giovanni Dingcong's sac fly in the bottom half.

John Bednarek hurled a scoreless frame in the fifth, the first time the visitors had been held scoreless, and STAC would take advantage to grab its first lead. Fischer tied the game with a run-scoring double and Baerga's sac fly would give the Spartans a 7-6 advantage.

After a high-scoring start, that lead would hold up until Felician pushed across the tying run in the top of the eighth, and the game would head to extras. The Falcons plated the go-ahead tally in the top of the 10th off Matt Kostolos, but the Spartans would again have an answer.

Del Priore got the ball rolling with a double deep to right center, and held on Fischer's infield single, putting runners at first and second. Baerga would add an infield hit to load the bases and set the stage for Susana's heroics.

Kostolos allowed just one earned run in 2.2 innings to improve to 6-2 on the season, with Rob Naughton taking the relief loss to fall to 4-2. Fischer had a huge day at the plate for the Spartans, going 4-for-5 with a pair of runs scored.

The Spartans will now enjoy a couple of days off before taking their first-place standing into a big four-game East Coast Conference set with Dowling College this weekend. Action starts with a Friday double-header at Provident Bank Park beginning at 11:00 am, and after a rare Saturday off, concludes with another twin-bill on Long Island on Sunday. STAC currently holds a two game lead in the standings over Dowling, Bridgeport, and LIU Post, who are in a virtual tie for second place.