The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team took the finale of their East Coast Conference series at Mercy College by a convincing 14-3 count. Deven Del Priore led the way with a homer and four RBI and Joe Signore added a homer and five RBI. The Spartans captured three of four in the set, improving to 15-6 overall and 3-1 in the ECC, with Mercy falling to 8-12, 1-3.

With runs being hard to come by over the first three games, the Spartans wasted little time turning that around, posting seven runs over the first two frames.

Joseph Pena singled and Greg Dawber walked to start the ball rolling, and Del Priore came through with a two-run triple to give the visitors a lead they would not relinquish. Tyler Patane's bunt single brought in Del Priore, who also struck the big blow one inning later.

Nick Gargan's sac fly and an RBI single from Dawber put STAC in the driver's seat at 5-0, and Del Priore followed with a two-run shot to widen the gap.

Staked to a sizeable lead, starter John Bednarek soared through four scoreless frames before a solo Mavericks run in the 5th and a two-run homer in the 6th by Scott Hagan trimmed the gap to 7-3.

Any thoughts of a comeback were put to rest in the 8th as late entry Joe Signore crashed a three-run homer in a four-run rally, before adding a two-RBI double in the final stanza. Bednarek gave way after seven innings to earn the win, with the recently-dormant Spartan offense erupting for 15 hits.

Tuesday's scheduled game against Dominican College will now be played at Frozen Ropes Training Center in Chester, NY, with a 2:30 pm start. The Spartans will travel to face Concordia College on Wednesday, while the schedule for the weekend ECC home games against LIU Post is TBD due to the unavailability of Provident Bank Park. Please check the schedule for updates.

- Steve Balsan, St. Thomas Aquinas Sports Information

- Photo by Dorice Arden