GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – The Felician University softball team dropped both ends of its non-conference doubleheader to host Adelphi University on Friday afternoon at Janet L. Ficke Field. Adelphi took Game 1, 10-2, in six innings, and captured Game 2, 8-0, in five innings. The Panthers were playing their 2021 season openers.

Junior outfielder Sam Melendez (Levittown, N.Y.) had a hit in each game for Felician (0-4). Panther leadoff batter Lauren O'Neill (Stamford, Conn.) was 5 for 8 and scored three runs on the day.

In the opening game, Adelphi senior right-hander Ally Muller (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) was perfect through 3 1/3 innings. Her bid was foiled by a Mia Martinez (Bronx, N.Y.) single, but by that time the Panther offense had built her an 8-0 lead. Sophia Cichetti (Stirling, N.J.) stroked a two-run first-inning double and O'Neill had an RBI single in the second. Adelphi broke the game open with five runs on six hits in the bottom of the third.

The Golden Falcons loaded the bases with no one out in the fifth. They settled for two runs on a wild pitch and a Vienna Chierchia (Malanapan, N.J.) RBI infield hit, leaving the bags full. Single runs by Adelphi in the fifth and sixth frames ended the contest.

The Panthers out-hit Felician, 16-6. Adelphi's O'Neill and Emily Whitman (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) were each 3 for 5. Melendez was on base twice for the Golden Falcons.

Felician was held to one hit in the nightcap -- a single by Melendez leading off the second inning -- by Panther senior righty Nicole Mengel (Lititz, Pa.). Krystina Lorch (Hemet, Calif.) reached on an error one batter later, but the threat was thwarted when Adelphi turned a ground-ball double play.

The Adelphi offense stayed hot, pounding out nine hits and taking advantage of three Felician errors. Back-to-back-miscues by Felician, an outfield error and a passed ball, allowed the Panthers to rally for three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and an 8-0 lead. Mengel then retired the Golden Falcons in order in the fifth to end the day's competition. Adelphi designated player Hannah Pineda (New Hyde Park, N.Y.) was 2 for 2 with a double and three RBI.

Felician plays another road doubleheader against a Northeast-10 Conference foe, Southern Connecticut State University, on Sunday at noon in New Haven, Conn.