Melbourne, Fla. - Lauren Falk and Emma Grace Popp's strong pitching and Trinadey Santiago's hitting helped St. Thomas Aquinas College win its last four games of an eight-game appearance at the Space Coast Spring Games that concluded yesterday. 

 

The Spartans, now 4-6, fly home with great momentum after four exciting wins including three against teams from the well-regarded Northeast-10 conference.

 

"This Florida trip is designed to help us gell together and work out the kinks, and that's exactly what happened," said STAC Head Coach Kristen Sullivan. "We faced some teams that had already played 20 games so we started slow and finished very well. Our pitching improved dramatically and our bats came alive."

 

Falk was the pitching star. The righthander threw a pair of shutouts in 8-0 wins over Bentley and St. Michael's. She allowed just five hits and one walk in the wins. Popp had 14 combined strikeouts in posting complete-game victories over Bentley (7-6) and Felician (7-2). 

 

STAC's come-from-behind win over Bentley was the highlight of the trip. With the Spartans trailing 5-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Maristella Coira singled in Nayah Diaz to cut the score to 5-4 and Elyse Marcano followed with a clutch, two-out single to tie the score. STAC trailed again 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth inning but Olivia Leon won the game with a two-run, walk off double.

 

Santiago sparkled at the plate in the four wins. She had four hits, including a homer, and four RBI in the win over St. Michael's and also homered against Felician. 

 

STAC's pitching and hitting came together after losing its first four games of the Florida swing to Goldey Beacom (7-5), Palm Beach Atlantic (8-4), Winona State (11-2) and Franklin Pierce (10-1). The offense exploded for 30 runs and 42 hits in the final four games of the trip. Santiago, Marcano, Maristella Coira and Sofia Marella were hitting leaders. 

 

In addition, Adriana Coira (shortstop) and Trinadey Santiago (third base) starred defensively for the maroon and gold.

 

STAC next hosts Assumption University tomorrow at 1 pm at Spartan Field in a non-conference doubleheader.