Garden City, N.Y. - Kicking off a four-game weekend against the College of Saint Rose, the Adelphi University softball team swept a doubleheader from the Golden Knights on Janet L. Ficke Field on Friday afternoon, 5-2 and 8-2.

The Panthers (19-15-1, 11-4-1 NE10) snapped a four-game skid with the victories, and saw the long ball do damage over the course of the doubleheader. Nicoletta Cuccio and Brenna Martini went back-to-back in the fifth inning of game one, which turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 advantage, while Emily Turney's third blast of the season put the exclamation point on the nightcap in the bottom of the sixth.

Turney had herself a career afternoon in game two, as the sophomore drove in a career-best five runs on a 2-for-3 showing, as her RBI single opened the scoring in the third inning and her sacrifice fly doubled Adelphi's lead to 2-0 in the fifth.

Adelphi was no-hit over the first 3.1 innings by Saint Rose (10-15, 5-5 NE10) starter Thalia Santiago in game one, before Nicole Camera's fourth inning single gave the Panthers their first knock of the game. A pair of RBI doubles for catcher Sydney Cimini in the second and Katie Shevlin in the fifth gave the Golden Knights a 2-0 lead against Nicole Mengel, but Adelphi found its groove offensively in the late innings. 

After leaving the bases loaded in the fourth, six of Adelphi's eight hits came in the final three innings, with Cuccio and Martini's homers coming with two outs in the fifth after Lauren O'Neill singled. The Brown and Gold added two more in the sixth after Turney's leadoff double, as Christina Rizzi knocked her in with a double of her own and O'Neill scored Elisabeth Berard with her second hit of the game.

In the nightcap, Adelphi stranded two on base in each of the first two innings but scratched out one in the third, as Turney started her career game with a two-out RBI single which chased home Cuccio, who doubled to lead off.

A three-run fifth from the bottom of the Adelphi order, with RBIs from Turney, Rizzi and Kailah Konkel made it a 4-0 game, and after Jessica Vadala extinguished a Golden Knight threat in the top of the fifth, Adelphi broke the game open with a four-run sixth.

The teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader on Saturday at noon, and between games one and two Adelphi will honor its three graduating seniors: Martini, Nicole Camera and Krista King.

---

About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009, and in the past eight seasons, has collected 26 regular season conference titles, 28 tournament championships, 37 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup four times (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), while winning six NCAA Division II National Championships.

For the latest on Adelphi University Athletics, follow the Panthers at www.aupanthers.com or via social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat.