Garden City, N.Y. - Between a six-run fourth inning and a masterful performance by Nicolas Luc, the top-seeded Adelphi University baseball team got its first playoff win since 2015 with an 8-2 victory over No. 4 seed American International College in an NE10 Southwest Division semifinal Thursday at William J. Bonomo Memorial Field.

The Panthers (17-12), who have now won eight straight, will host No. 2 seed Le Moyne College in a best-of-three divisional final series, starting Sunday (May 16) at noon in Garden City. The winner of that series will advance to the NE10 Championship.

Luc got the ball in the team's postseason opener and the NE10 All-Conference third-team selection was dialed in from the start.

He faced one over the minimum through his first five innings and had a no-hitter broken up on his first batter of the sixth. Luc threw nearly 70 percent of his pitches (71-of-102) for strikes and fanned a career-high 10 batters in the process.

Luc let up only three hits and walked just two in his 7.2 innings of work.

He allowed his first run of the game on a balk in the sixth, but avoided any further damage by stranding runners on first and second with a strikeout of AIC clean-up hitter Chad Lavelle.

The offense came up empty early, leaving four on base -- with two in scoring position -- in the first three innings.

That short drought ended in the fourth, after Adelphi sent 10 batters to the plate.

For the third time in four innings, the Panthers put the leadoff runner on -- this time, via a Michael Draskin walk. A subsequent Tyler Becker single put runners on the corners with none out.

After Becker stole second to put two in scoring position, Cooper Johnson hit a double over the left-fielder's glove to score the first run of the game. Four of the next five batters to step to the plate drove in RBIs.

Anthony Cipri scored Becker on a safety squeeze. Matt Alifano roped a double down the left-field line to bring Johnson around. Kyle Olson doubled home Alifano and Jack Ryan cleared the bases with a double of his own that plated a pair.

In the eighth, Alifano created more separation, when the NE10 Southwest Division Rookie Hitter of the Year took James Flahive deep on a 2-2 pitch, after Cipri nearly cleared the fence on his lead-off double.

Steven Murphy got into some trouble in the visitors' half of the eighth, but struck out Lavelle to leave two runners stranded. Kevin Glasser struck out the side in the ninth.