NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The first collegiate home run for Felician University freshman shortstop Mia Martinez (Bronx, N.Y.) cut her team's 4-0 deficit in half, but that was as close as the Golden Falcons would come during a 4-2 loss to host Southern Connecticut State University in Game 2 of the teams' non-conference softball doubleheader on Sunday afternoon at Pelz Field. Southern Connecticut State had claimed the day's opening Game, 10-2 in five innings.

Martinez was 3 for 7 with three runs batted in for the Golden Falcons on the day. The Owls were playing their 2021 season openers.

After scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning of the nightcap, SCSU tacked on a run in the third on a Jayden Delaporta (Mystic, Conn.) squeeze bunt and another in the fourth using Sara Buscetto's (Waterford, Conn.) sacrifice fly. Meanwhile Owl pitcher Jessica Perucki (West Milford, N.J.) had shut out the Golden Falcons on two hits through four frames.

Felician junior designated player Krystina Lorch (Hemet, Calif.) started the top of the fifth with an infield single. One out later, Martinez drove a Perucki offering over the left-center field fence. The Golden Falcons followed with a double and a hit batsman, but Perucki escaped further damage.

Felician junior left-hander Martarina Crumb (Branchville, N.J.) kept Southern off the scoreboard the rest of the way, finishing with eight hits and one walk allowed in six innings. Perucki worked around a one-out Daisha Howard (Westbury, N.Y.) double in the sixth and a two-out hit batter in the seventh to earn a complete-game victory. She gave up six hits while striking out three. The Owls' Cailey Botteon (Moodus, Conn.) was 2 for 3 with an RBI.

SCSU had assumed a 9-0 lead after two innings of Game 1, using seven hits and taking advantage of four Felician errors. The Golden Falcons looked to extend the game by scoring twice in the fourth, receiving an RBI single from Vienna Chierchia (Manalapan, N.J.) and a run-scoring groundout Martinez. But Delaporta drew a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the fifth to enact the NCAA 8-run rule.

Botteon was 3 for 4 with a triple, three runs scored and three RBI. Martinez had a double and joined Lorch and freshman catcher Sarah Harrell (Chesapeake, Va.) with two hits each for Felician (0-6).

The Golden Falcons open Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference action for 2021 with a 2 p.m. doubleheader against Thomas Jefferson University on March 20.