WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The Felician University softball team lost a pair of non-conference games to opponents from Michigan on Thursday during PFX Athletics' THE Spring Games at the DiamondPlex Softball Complex. Felician's morning game went the way of Saginaw Valley State University, 16-2, in five innings. The Golden Falcons were defeated, 12-4, in six frames later Thursday by Grand Valley State University.

Saginaw Valley State received votes in the most recent national NCAA Division II coaches' poll.

The Golden Falcons (3-9) ended a season-opening stretch of 12 games in seven days. Felician senior first baseman Nicole Spiegelberg (Blauvelt, N.Y.) drove in four runs on the day.

SVSU (11-2) pounded 16 hits, including seven for extra bases, off three Golden Falcon pitchers during its five trips to the plate. Playing as the visiting team, the Cardinals punctured the scoreboard in the first inning when a Sara Moos (Northville, Mich.) squeeze bunt plated Sarah Gersch (Plainfield, Ill.), who had led off the contest with a triple.

SVSU used four hits, a walk and a throwing error to score four times in the third inning, then took full control with a five-run fourth. Shelby Misiak's (Lake Orion, Mich.) two-run double and a three-run home run by Jackie Popko (Macomb, Mich.) were the big blows. Spiegelberg brought the Golden Falcons closer to extending the game with a one-out solo homer in the home half of the fourth, but the Cardinals nixed that notion by scoring six more times in the fifth, including a pinch-hit grand slam from Alyssa Seegraves (Bay City, Mich.).

SVSU sophomore right-hander Jaclyn Groves (Olivet, Mich) (3-0) pitched four innings for the victory, yielding one run on two hits with four strikeouts. Misiak (three RBI) and junior second baseman Megan VerVaecke (Macomb, Mich) had two doubles each. Sophomore designated player Krystina Lorch (Hemet, Calif.) was 2 for 2 with two doubles, and freshman shortstop Johanna Rivera (Cliffside Park, N.J.) lined an RBI double in the fifth for Felician.

Trailing, 3-1, after one stanza against GVSU, Felician, playing as the visiting team, reclaimed the lead during the top of the second inning on Spiegelberg's two-out, three-run double. Laker freshman second baseman Emma Ceroni's (Flat Rock, Mich.) RBI triple evened the score in the fourth. After a Morgan Wagner (Coloma, Mich.) run-scoring single put GVSU ahead to stay in the fifth, the Lakers kept their rally going and came away with five runs. Kelcie LaTour (Chesterfield, Mich.) came up with a three-run double and scored one out later on Cerroni's ground-ball single.

After Brook Henning (Blissfield, Mich.) homered in the fifth, a two-run round-tripper by Laker junior Taylor Rieger with one out in the sixth ended the contest on the NCAA eight-run rule. GVSU (9-3) picked up 16 hits, six of the extra-base variety, and were issued five walks and two hit batsmen. Henning, who homered twice, and Cerroni had three hits each.

Felician senior left fielder Monica Laverty (Lyndhurst, N.J.) was 2 for 4 and scored twice. Sophomore Jackie Ribaudo (Staten Island, N.Y.) had a hit and a sacrifice fly.

Felician concludes its stay at THE Spring Games with two games against East region opponents on Saturday. The Golden Falcons take on American International College 1:30 p.m. and Assumption College at 3:45 p.m. in Jan Phyl Village, Fla.