St. Thomas Aquinas baseball
Chris Pennell Signs With the Rockland Boulders
St. Thomas Aquinas is coming off a 39-win season in which they captured the 2018 East Coast Conference Championship in a 3-2 thrilling victory over Molloy. They reached the NCAA East Regional Championship–even winning their first two games–before ultimately having their season ended by Southern New Hampshire by the score of 6-0. It is no surprise that four of their players that were key cogs in that success are now playing professional baseball. Giovanni Dingcong (Daly City, CA) and Joey Pena (Brooklyn, NY) were both drafted by the Oakland Athletics, while RHPs Frankie Moscatielll (Rocky Point, NY) and Chris Pennell (Mamaroneck, NY) were both signed by the Rockland Boulders, who they share their stadium with. All four of these player participated in our Axcess Invitational back...
Q & A With Joey Pena
It’s hard to have a better collegiate career than Joey Pena. The Brooklyn native just wrapped up an outstanding 4-year career with the St. Thomas Aquinas Spartans, hitting .366 with 37 RBI and 50 runs scored this season. Joey was far from a singles-hitting shortstop. He had 26 extra base hits and stole 37 bases, while playing all 54 contests. Perhaps most impressive, he drew 45 walks and struck out only 14 times; which padded his OBP to a ridiculous .498 over 194 at bats. Earlier this year he broke the program record for hits in a career. They came up just shy of returning to Cary, N.C. for the Div-II College World Series after they were shutout 6-0 by Blue Point native Shane McDonald. Pena participated in our Axcess Invitational on Tuesday and he was one of the stars of the show. He...
Insider Notes: St. Thomas Aquinas
by Nick Vecchione On a gorgeous afternoon in Uniondale, NY, St. Thomas Aquinas took on LIU Post for a chance to punch their ticket to the ECC championship game on Saturday. Coming into the game, the powerful STAC lineup had accumulated 40 homers in the season! YES, 40 HOME RUNS! And they lived up to their calling card as they added to that total fairly quickly. Setting the table for the star studded lineup was 2nd basemen, Nicholas Lucchese. Now the box score 100% tells the story that Nick is a coach’s dream at the top of the lineup, reaching base 4 times. However, his swing is far from fundamentally sound. He for sure found something that is unorthodox, and may not be conducive to success for many, but hey, it obviously works for him, as the stats speak for themself! He brings to t...
St. Thomas Aquinas Captures ECC Championship With 3-2 Victory over Molloy
Nick Lucchese is our @DigmiNation Player of the Game he was also named Most Outstanding Player of the ECC Tournament. The Spartans are looking to return to the Div-II College World Series pic.twitter.com/45GjP1pRhK — Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 12, 2018 One of the hallmarks of St. Thomas Aquinas baseball over the past five seasons is that they are calm, cool and collected in big moments. It came as no surprise that even with Molloy getting the tying-run to third base and the potential go-ahead run on first base in the ninth inning of the ECC Championship that relief pitcher Chris Pennell would make a quality pitch and induce a soft fly out to left field to seal the 3-2 victory for the Spartans and the 2018 ECC Championship. “I’m enjoying the moment,” said tou...
