JAN PHYL VILLAGE, Fla. – Senior Jaylene Sierra (Jersey City, N.J.) and sophomore Alexis Velotta (Menifee, Calif.) hit home runs and senior left-hander Martarina Crumb (Branchville, N.J.) pitched a five-hitter as the Felician University softball team defeated Stonehill College, 3-1, during THE Spring Games on Friday afternoon at the Auburndale Softball Complex. Felician was participating in its first day of competition of the 2022 season.

Earlier on Friday, the Golden Falcons were defeated by Saginaw Valley State University, 9-1, in five innings.

Against Stonehill, Felician was the designated home team, and erased an early 1-0 deficit with two runs in the bottom of the third inning. Velotta led off the inning with a tying home run. Sierra later drew a one-out walk, crossed all the way to third base on a infield groundout, and scored on a passed ball.

Sierra hit her first collegiate roundtripper with one out in the fifth. Crumb, meanwhile, stranded seven Skyhawk baserunners. She struck out three batters and walked five, and kept Stonehill off the scoreboard following a run-scoring groundout by Chloe Kelly (East Bridgewater, Mass.) in the second.

Daisha Howard (Westbury, N.Y.) was 2 for 3 for Felician. Emily Nardelli (North Attleboro, Mass.) picked up a pair of hits for Stonehill (4-4).

During their season opener earlier on Friday, the Golden Falcons were outhit by Saginaw Valley State, 12-3. Trailing, 8-0, after four innings, Felician, the designated away team, received an RBI single from Mia Martinez (Bronx, N.Y.) to extend the game, but the Cardinals forced the invoking of the NCAA 8-run rule during the bottom half on Paige Kolinski's (Macomb, Mich.) pinch-hit home run.

Blasia Moyler (Wapakoneta, Ohio) homered and drove in three runs for SVSU (9-4) and pitcher Jaclyn Groves (Olivet, Mich.) (4-1) notched 11 strikeouts.

Felician faces Slippery Rock University on Sunday in Winter Haven, Fla.