The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team participated in community service as part of their trip to the NCAA Division II Championship. Spartan players and coaches were welcome visitors at the Irving Family YMCA in Irving, Texas, on Saturday afternoon.

Members of STAC traveling party arrived in their uniform tops, signed autograph cards, handed out wrist sweat bands and new baseball gloves, provided by Rawlings and the NCAA to youth baseball players on two 8U teams.

As a highlight of the afternoon, the Spartans also helped out with an on-field game between the 8U teams, and none other than Head Coach Scott Muscat was the honorary starting pitcher for both squads.

Of course, serving the community is second nature for the entire St. Thomas Aquinas athletic department, as they were recently awarded the 2016-17 East Coast Conference Community Cup in recognition to the program's hours of community service. STAC has now earned this conference honor for eight consecutive seasons.

Also honored in those ceremonies was Spartans junior shortstop Joey Pena, who was one of just three athletes across all sports and institutions to earn the prestigious Excellence in Community and Character (ECC) Award for his effort in the Touching Bases program, which is run by the STAC baseball team.