The St. Thomas Aquinas College baseball team captured a double-header sweep over Bloomsburg University in Colonial Heights, VA, winning both ends by 3-2 scores. After Bloomsburg swept a pair just 24 hours earlier, the teams settled for a weekend split, with STAC now at 6-2 overall and the Huskies dropping to 5-3.
STAC ace Frankie Moscatiello made his first start of the year in the opener, trading zeroes with UB's Nick Stoner until Bloomsburg plated a run in the bottom of the 3rd. Cole Swiger led off with a double and came in on an Andrew Homes squeeze bunt, accounting for the only run through four innings. The Spartans tied the game in the 5th when Bobby Morse led off with a walk, advanced on an error, moved to third on a sacrifice, and scored on Joey Pena's infield grounder to make the score 1-1.
One inning later, the Spartans took advantage of another leadoff walk, as Giovanni Dingcong reached, advanced on Anthony Shkrelja's double, and trotted home with the lead run on a Cris Ruiz sac fly, giving STAC a 2-1 lead, though they were not able to plate the insurance run. That loomed large when Kyle OFier homered off reliever Tyler Patane, and the game would proceed to extra innings. Giovanni Dingcong provided the big blow in the 8th, as his leadoff homer was his fourth of the season. Chris Pennell, who entered in the home 7th, danced through trouble in the final frame, walking the bases loaded with one down before inducing a game-ending double-play. The win improved Pennell to 2-0 on the season, with James Reardon taking his first setback of the season for Bloomsburg.
Batting as the visitors, the Huskies posted single runs in the first two innings of the weekend finale. Austin Edgette homered off Spartan starter Alex Mack in the 1st, and Jake Reed squeezed home another in the 2nd. Mack would give way to Angelo Baez in that 2nd inning, and the sophomore right-hander was near-perfect the rest of the way, holding Bloomsburg hitless over the final 5.1 innings.
That kept the Spartans in the contest until they were finally able to touch UB starter Chad Cooperman, starting in the bottom of the 5th. Juan Adorno singled and Joey Pena came through with a big two-out single to bring him in, trimming the margin to 2-1. STAC jumped on top in the 6th when Nick Lucchese led off with a walk and came around on Dingcong's game-tying double.
With two out and runners at the corners, Juan Adorno's big single put the Spartans on top and Baez, who walked just one while fanning six over his impressive stint, shut down his foes once again in the final inning to improve to 1-0, while Cooperman was tagged with the loss to drop to 0-1.
The Spartans will embark on their final southern trip of the season, heading to Cary, North Carolina for five games this weekend. On Friday, they play a split double-header with Findlay and Franklin Pierce; on Saturday, Saint Rose and Dominican provide the opposition, and the set closes with a noon start against Claflin on Sunday, with all games being played at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.