Tournament Central
COLUMBUS, Ga. – The Ave Maria softball team upset 11th-ranked Belhaven (Miss.) in the final game of pool play, 12-5, behind Deanna Stirtzinger's grand slam in the fourth inning. The win and a William Woods loss to Corban allowed the Lady Gyrenes (7-11) to come out of pool five with the best record and advance to the Gold Bracket of the NFCA NAIA Leadoff Classic. In the first game of bracket play, the Blue and Green fell to number one-ranked Auburn University-Montgomery (Ala.), 5-2.
Ave Maria will take on third-ranked Reinhardt University on Sunday morning on the final day of the Leadoff Classic. The game is slated to begin at 9 a.m. Live stats will be available at AveMariaGyrenes.com.
Against Belhaven, the Lady Gyrenes got on the board early on a sac bunt by Brandi Griswold to score Kingsley Avery. Belhaven responded with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 2-1 lead on AMU.
The Blazers added two runs in the second and one in the third to put the Lady Gyrenes in a 5-1 hole.
The Blue and Green got the bats going in the fourth innings and an Emily Blackmore double down the left field line plated two of the Lady Gyrenes' six runs in the inning. After a Marlie Braddy walk to load the bases, Stirzinger cranked one out of the park for a grand slam to put the Lady Gyrenes in front 7-5.
AMU added three more runs in the fifth on a sac fly by McKayla Jeter, a RBI single by Braddy and an error by the Blazers to make the score 10-5. The Lady Gyrenes got a couple more insurance runs in the top of the sixth on another error by Belhaven and a RBI single by Alyssa Colding.
Colding and Jeter each finished game one with three hits and an RBI. Colding scored two runs and Jeter one run. Avery went 2-for-3 with two runs scored while Griswold had one hit and one RBI while scoring two runs. Nine different players scored a run for the Lady Gyrenes and six different batters collected RBIs.
Jessenia Gonzalez got the start for AMU and pitched three innings for the Lady Gyrenes. She allowed five runs on five hits. Emily Lemin picked up the win for AMU, pitching four scoreless inning in relief of Gonzalez. Lemin allowed four hits and struck out two.
In game two against Auburn-Montgomery, the Warhawks got out to an early lead on the Lady Gyenesn with a two-run home run in the bottom of the second inning.
The Blue and Green got one of those runs back in the top of the third on a Colding RBI double to left field to bring home Stirtzinger.
Auburn-Montgomery used another two-run home run and a sac fly to add three runs to the board in the bottom of the fourth innings to make the score 5-1.
Colding hit a solo home run in the top of the sixth to make the final 5-2.
Colding went 2-for-3 in game two with two RBI and one runs scored. On the day, Colding finished 5-for-7 with three runs scored and three RBI.
Cheyenne Benson took the loss in game two, allowing five runs on four hits and four walks over 4.2 innings. Lemin pitched the final 1.1 innings of the game, walking one and striking out two.
