TITUSVILLE, Fla. --- The Ave Maria softball team swept Penn State Hazleton this morning by identical scores of 9-1. The Lady Gyrenes improve to 15-15 on the season as they finish play in the Cocoa Expo Spring Games with a 7-2 record.
 
The Lady Gyrenes scored in each inning of a 9-1, 5-inning win in game one. Jessinia Gonzalez improved to 3-1 on the season with the win. She pitched four innings and allowed one unearned run. Gonzalez allowed four hits and walked one while striking out four. Caitlin Constance pitched the final inning, allowing one hit and striking out one.
 
Cheyenne Benson started things off for the Blue and Green with a RBI single to left in the first innings to score Kingsley Avery. In the second inning, Avery singled to plate Brianna Alonso and Brandi Griswold had an RBI groundout scoring Miranda Dessecker to increase the Lady Gyrene lead to 3-0.
 
After Penn State Hazleton scored a run in the top of the third to but the lead to two, the Blue and Green responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 5-1. The first run of the inning came on a Marlie Braddy double to score Alyssa Colding. Later in the inning, Alonso scored on a passed ball.
 
In the fourth, Benson hit a two-RBI single to bring in Rachel Curtiss and Avery. Leading by six, 7-1, Braddy hit a walk-off two-run homerun to put the Lady Gyrenes up 9-1 to win by mercy rule.
 
In game two, the Lady Gyrenes again jumped out to an early lead, scoring three in the top of the first. After Benson doubled in a run, Nikki Woodard hit a two-RBI single to left to bring in Braddy and Benson.
 
Emily Blackmore hit a sac fly to score Dessecker in the third to make the score 4-0 in favor of the Blue and Green.  In the fourth, a RBI single by Victoria Thompson and a two-RBI single by Brittany Blocker made the score 7-0.
 
After Penn State Hazleton got on the board in the bottom of the fourth with a run, Dessecker hit a two-run homerun in the top of the sixth to put AMU in front by eight, 9-1. A scoreless bottom half of the sixth ended the game by mercy rule.
 
In the circle, Hali Delashmet improved to 2-0 on the season with the win. She pitched four inning and allowed one run. She surrendered one hit and struck out nine. Constance again came in to finish things off, pitching two scoreless innings while allowing three hits.
 
Avery was 5-for-6 on the afternoon with a triple, two runs scored, a RBI, and three stolen bases. Benson finished the day 4-for-5 with a double, four RBI and a run scored.
 
The Lady Gyrenes will now enjoy eight days off before beginning Sun Conference play on March 21 in Babson Park against Webber International.