The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team split a pair with Southern New Hampshire University, winning the opener 2-0 before dropping the nightcap, 6-1, in Northborough, Mass. The Spartans, ranked #21 in this week's National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll are now 11-5 while SNHU now stands at 10-6.
Originally scheduled as the Spartans Home Opening at Palisades Credit Union Park, the three-game series was moved to the New England Baseball Complex due to unplayable field conditions in Pomona. STAC ace Frankie Moscatiello took the hill against Penmen starter Andrew Lalonde in the East showdown that pitted the #2 and #3 ranked teams, respectively, in the region in this week's NCBWA poll.
Both hurlers were superb through seven scoreless innings, with Lalonde allowing four hits and striking out 11 and Moscatiello yielding just one hit while fanning nine. SNHU posed the biggest threat in the bottom of the 3rd when Tom Blandini led off with a triple, but the hard-throwing right hander fanned the next two to escape the inning unscathed. The Spartans had their own threat with runners at first and third with one out, but were unable to push a run across.
St. Thomas Aquinas finally got on the board in the 8th, when Angelo Baez led off with a double, advanced to third on an errant pickoff attempt, and scored on Chris Ruiz' sac fly. Chris Pennell came on for STAC in the bottom half and allowed a leadoff walk, but Baez took the mound and retired the next three in order. Anthony Maisano singled to lead off the 9th on reliever Wesley Tobin and Ruiz later picked up his second RBI, bringing home the insurance run with a squeeze bunt single. Baez closed out the 9th to earn the save, with Moscatiello improving to 2-0 in gaining the win.
In the back end of the double-header, Anthony Shkrelja gave the Spartans a 2nd inning lead with a solo homer, but the Penmen rallied with a pair in the bottom half, on a Ryan Sullivan homer and an RBI single by Joshua Ziberski to give the hosts a 2-1 edge. John Stanton and Jake Coro each added homers as SNHU posted solo runs in the 3rd and 4th and two more in the 6th to provide the final margin. Shane McDonald worked the seven-inning complete game for the victory, while Chris Cepeda fell to 1-2 with the loss.
The rubber game of the series will be played at the same location on Sunday, with game time shifted to 2:00 pm. The Spartans are now slated to open their home schedule this Wednesday, March 21, in a non-conference tilt with Franklin Pierce University as first pitch is set for 3:30 pm.