Garden City, N.Y. - In its final tune-up before the conference slate begins, the Adelphi University baseball team lost both ends of a doubleheader to St. Thomas Aquinas College in non-conference action Saturday at William J. Bonomo Memorial Field.

Game 1: Adelphi 2, STAC 9
In the opener, Josh Rovner put up zeroes over his first three frames, but STAC broke through against the righty with a fourth-inning sacrifice fly.

Rovner's defensive skills kept the difference at 1-0 in the fourth. A smooth play on a squeeze bunt with one out led to a Jack Ryan tag of Danny Di Marzo on a play at the plate.

Adelphi capitalized on that momentum and took the lead in its half of the fourth on an RBI single by Tyler Becker. Anthony Cipri led off the rally with a one-out double and Tim Feliz knocked him in for the game-tying run with a double of his own.

The Panthers were unable to hold the lead though. After Rovner gave up a two-out double in the fifth that evened the score, Adelphi turned to its bullpen.

STAC would load the bases against Max Steele and subsequently cleared the bases against Steven Murphy by way of a three-RBI double by Sean Lynch.

Trailing 5-2, the Panthers brought the tying run to the plate in the fifth against STAC starter Alex Mack. Feliz roped a ball to right-center that James Versage tracked down in the gap to end the threat.

Adelphi put a runner on second in three of the game's final four innings, but never pushed a run across in any of those frames.

Rovner took the loss in the decision. He tossed 4.2 innings of four-hit, three-run, four-walk, four-strikeout ball. Mack struck out eight across six innings and earned the win for the Spartans.

Game 2: Adelphi 3, STAC 12
The defense got involved early to back senior starter and reigning NE10 Pitcher of the Week Nicolas Luc, who was coming off a six-inning masterpiece against Pace.

The first batter doubled to right, before the relay from Cipri gunned down Anthony Maisano at third. One batter later, Anthony Foti made a sliding catch in left to rob Christopher Conti of a base hit.

Luc wasn't as fortunate in the second inning. STAC sent 12 batters to the plate and jumped out to a commanding 6-0 lead, with Luc walking in a pair of runs.

The third inning nearly mirrored the second. The Spartans batted around again, with six more runs crossing the plate, against Jacob Dannenberg.

Jose Matos made his first start behind the dish for Adelphi (2-5) and went 2-for-2 with two RBIs. 

Luc allowed six runs and five walks in only 1.1 innings of work. Michael Storms struck out the side in his eighth-inning appearance.

Head Coach Dom Scala and the Panthers return to action next weekend (Mar. 27-28), when they open up Northeast-10 Conference play with a four-game set against Southern Connecticut State University, starting Saturday with a doubleheader at noon.