Garden City, N.Y. - The bats were on fire early and often for the Adelphi University softball team on Thursday afternoon, as the Panthers took a pair of run-ruled victories from the American International College Yellow Jackets, 13-0 and 8-0 in five innings apiece.

Adelphi (24-16, 16-5 NE10) used a five-run first and fourth in game one to score its largest margin of victory so far this season, and later used a six-run third inning to sweep the first two games of a four-game set from AIC (8-29, 5-17 NE10).

Adelphi hit four home runs in the game, as Nicoletta Cuccio, Emily Whitman and Emily Turney blasted back-to-back-to-back solo shots in the first frame of the opener to set the tone, before Turney launched her second of the afternoon in the fourth inning of game two to help the Panthers seal the run-rule effort.

Cuccio drove in four in the first game, as the senior added an RBI groundout in the third and a two-run single in the fourth to her tally, while six of the eight other Adelphi starters knocked in a run as well. 

In game two, Turney led the effort with the sticks, as one of three to knock in two, alongside Hannah Pineda and Lauren Sandelier. Pineda's two-run single to right center kicked off Adelphi's scoring the the third inning, while Sandelier's two-run double immediately followed to turn it into a 4-0 Adelphi edge.

RBI singles for Ashley Lombardi and Lauren O'Neill followed to end the six-run frame for the Panthers, before Turney's blast insured the Brown and Gold would have a chance to win the game in five frames. 

Ally Muller and Nicole Mengel combined to throw 10 shutout innings, with the former now unscored upon in her last 33.0 frames, while Mengel worked around two singles in her final inning of work to keep AIC off the board on the afternoon. 

The Panthers and Yellow Jackets will close out their four-game series on Monday, April 22 with two more, with the doubleheader set to begin at 2:00 p.m.

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About Adelphi Athletics
A regionally and nationally competitive NCAA Division II institution located in Garden City, N.Y., Adelphi University has been a proud member of the Northeast-10 Conference since 2009.

Winners of 16 NCAA Division II National Championships and four NE10 Presidents' Cups, Panther athletes have excelled at the conference, regional and national level, both on the field of play and in the classroom. In turn, the Adelphi athletic department is committed to fostering an environment of diversity, inclusion, equity and success where its student-athletes can thrive both on campus and off.

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