The St. Thomas Aquinas College Baseball team was defeated by Dominican College by a score of 9-5 on Thursday afternoon at the USA Baseball Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.

Dominican broke a 3-3 tie a run in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings, before picking up two in the seventh and one in the eighth. STAC plated two runs of their own in the top of the ninth, but the game was too far out of reach for the Spartans mount a comeback.

Thomas Gregory got the start for STAC and picked up the loss (1-2). Gregory gave up 5 runs on 9 hits over four innings, while walking one and striking out 4 Chargers. Alex Mack pitched the next three innings in relief for the Spartans, surrendering 3 runs (2 earned) on 5 hits, while walking 3 and fanning 4.

STAC's offense produced 5 runs on 8 hits. Three different Spartans delivered multi-hit games, including Anthony Maisano (2-for-4) who hit a double and also added a run and a stolen base on the day. Kyle Lagrutta (2-for-3) smacked a double, walked and scored a run and Dylan Klock went 2-for-4 with a double. He also walked and scored a run.

HIGHLIGHTS AND NOTES:

• STAC took a 3-0 first inning lead on the strength of a Matthew Johnson triple, scoring Anthony Maisano and Brian Donnelly. Johnson would then come around to score on a wild pitch.
• Dominican would tie things up in the bottom of the frame, as David Hill would club a 3-RBI double plating Ryan Ruziecki, Joshua Colon and Billy Rotella.
• The Chargers would scratch across a run in the third when David Hill singled, scoring Billy Rotella to make it 4-3.
• Dominican pushed their lead to 5-3 in the fourth on a Brian Sanders RBI single, scoring Ryan Ruziecki.
• An Arthur Quinones single, scoring Steven Santana, doubled the DC lead at 6-3 after five innings.
• Dominican would plate two more runs in the seventh, as first Max Chidsey picked up an RBI single, scoring Arthur Quinones, before Brian Parzyck would come around to score on a passed ball to make it 8-3.
• The final Charger run of the game would come as Brian Sanders would steal second base, drawing an errant throw by the STAC catcher, which allowed Sanders to come all the way around to score and increase the lead to 9-3 after eight.
• STAC would attempt a rally in the top of the ninth, as Kyle Lagrutta, Dylan Klock and Nicholas Cinquanto all singled. On the Cinquanto single, Lagrutta would score to make it 9-4, but Cinquanto would be thrown out at second base attempting to turn his base knock into a double. After an Andrew Jemison ground out to third for the second out of the inning, Dylan Klock would score via a passed ball to pull things closer at 9-5. Unfortunately, Andrew Guerra would strike out swinging for the final out of the game, giving Dominican the victory.
• On the mound for Dominican, Jaden Diaz-Lambert picked up the win (2-1), while giving up 3 runs on 5 hits over eight innings pitched. Diaz-Lambert walked 4 and struck out 4, before John Rodriguez closed things out for the Chargers in the ninth. Rodriguez surrendered 3 hits and 2 runs (1 earned), while K'ing one.