The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team advanced to the final day of the NCAA Tournament East Regional for the fourth time in five years, and needs to defeat Southern New Hampshire University twice to repeat last year's championship. The Spartans are now 38-14 on the season with SNHU coming in at 38-15, including Sunday's 8-1 decision over STAC that accounted for their first loss of the 2018 post-season. The first game is scheduled for 12:00 noon with the "if necessary" game to follow at 4:00 pm at Finnerty Field at Pace University in Pleasantville, NY.
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How They Got Here - The Spartans won their opener against Wilmington on Thursday by an 8-3 count, and followed that up with a 5-1 triumph over LeMoyne on Friday. They fell to the Loser's Bracket with an 8-1 loss to Southern New Hampshire early Sunday, then rebounded to eliminate top-seeded New Haven, 4-0, in the day's final game.. The Spartans have amassed a 6-1 record in the 2018 post-season, including ECC tourney games.
Southern New Hampshire opened tourney play with a 7-2 victory over Franklin Pierce on Thursday, and followed that with a convincing 7-1 decision over top seeded New Haven on Friday and an equally-impressive 8-1 win over St. Thomas Aquinas on Saturday.
The Spartans (39-14)- While All-Conference standouts such as ECC Player of the Year Giovanni Dingcong, Joseph Pena, Frankie Moscatiello and Chris Cepeda have made the expected contributions, unsung heros have also provided important depth. Nicholas Lucchese was named the Most Outstanding Player of the ECC Tournament, Bobby Morse has been big in the clutch, and Anthony Maisano went 4-for-4 in Friday's win over LeMoyne. Reliever Chris Pennell drew the start in the elimination game against New Haven and tossed a spectacular four-hit, 13-strikeout complete game to keep the season alive.
The Penmen (38-15) - Tom Blandini and Joshua Goldstein had three hits each to lead SNHU to Sunday's win over STAC, and Andrew Lalonde and Wesley Tobin combined on a two-hitter.
Familiar foes - Tournament Game 12 will be the fifth this season between STAC and SNHU. Despite the distance between the Spartans and Penmen geographically, they have seen a lot of each other in recent seasons. STAC took 2-of-3 in a weekend series on March 17-18 in Northborough, Massachusetts, winning by scores of 2-0 and 4-2 and falling by a 6-1 margin. In 2017, they squared off four times, splitting a regular-season twin-bill on Long Island, before the Spartans won the last two straight in the East Regional, including in the final contest.
In the Post-Season - STAC is in its sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, won the East Region Championship in 2014 and '17, and were among the three finalists for last year's National Championship. The Spartans are likely the most playoff-tested squad in this year's field; since the 2013 season, STAC has a 33-18 overall post-season record (15-6 ECC; and 18-12 NCAAs). That total includes an impressive 15-7 mark in games when facing elimination.
Southern New Hampshire is one of the few programs that can challenge that claim, with seven straight East Regional appearances, including a Regional Championship in 2012 and appearances in the final game each of the past three seasons.
Beasts of the East - St. Thomas Aquinas began its current run of six straight East Regional appearances in 2013, making a quick exit after losing their first two games. One season later, they dropped their third straight NCAA game, falling to Wilmington in the East opener. Since that time, the Spartans have figured it out, reeling off an amazing 16-5 record in East Regional action, including championships in 2014 and '17, and their current string of seven wins in their last eight in East play.
What's Next? - The script is flipped in Monday's STAC-SNHU rematch - this year it's the Spartans who enter Monday's play with a loss, meaning they need two victories to claim the East championship while the Penmen need just one. The winner of the regional advances to the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship in Cary, North Carolina.
2018 NCAA Division II East Region Championship
Thursday, May 17
Game 1: #3 Le Moyne 3, #6 Merrimack 2
Game 2: #2 St. Thomas Aquinas 8, #7 Wilmington 3
Game 3: #4 Southern New Hampshire 7, #5 Franklin Pierce 2
Friday, May 18
Game 4: Wilmington 10, Merrimack 5 (Merrimack eliminated)
Game 5: Southern New Hampshire 7, #1 New Haven 1
Game 6: St. Thomas Aquinas 5, LeMoyne 1
Saturday, May 19
Game 7: New Haven 1, Wilmington 0 (Wilmington eliminated)
Game 8: Franklin Pierce 6, LeMoyne 2 (LeMoyne eliminated)
Sunday, May 20
Game 9: Southern New Hampshire 8, St. Thomas Aquinas 1
Game 10: New Haven 5, Franklin Pierce 4 (Franklin Pierce eliminated)
Game 11: St. Thomas Aquinas 4, New Haven 0 (New Haven eliminated)
Monday, May 21
Game 12: Southern New Hampshire vs. St. Thomas Aquinas - 12:00 p.m.
Game 13 (if necessary): St. Thomas Aquinas vs. Southern New Hampshire - 4:00 p.m.