Lake Wales, Fla. – Saturday afternoon the Ave Maria Gyrene baseball team split with the Royals of Warner University in their final Sun Conference double header of the season. With the split the Gyrenes won the three game series 2-1 and are now 21-32 overall and 8-18 in conference.

GAME 1 RECAP
In the first inning, the Royals opened up the game with a solo home run from Randy Rodriguez in the first at bat of the game.

From there offense was hard to come by as AMU starter Christian Dufresne and Warner starter Dylan Heiring went back and forth with scoreless innings.

The only other scoring in game one came from a sacrifice fly off the bat of Chris Mejia in the bottom of the fifth inning to make the score 2-0, where it would stay as a final.

Christian Dufresne went eight innings of six hit baseball, striking out two and allowing only two runs. Dylan Heiring was able to just outduel Dufresne, tossing a complete game shutout and striking out nine for his second win of the season.

GAME 2 RECAP
The Gyrene offense came alive right out of the gate in game number two. In the first, the blue and green hung four runs as Kellen Creech and Max Nell had two RBI a piece. Warner was able to plate one unearned run to make the school 4-1 heading into the second.

Kellen Creech added yet another RBI in the second inning to make the score 5-1.

Warner was able to put themselves within striking distance during the middle innings with RBI singles in the fourth and fifth innings, bringing the score to 5-3 in favor of AMU.

Ave Maria put the game out of reach in the seventh inning with a six run offensive outburst. Sean Trymbiski had two RBI in the inning while Bobby Oliver, Rico Soto and Christian Sanchez added an RBI each. The Gyrenes also added an unearned run to make the score 13-3 heading into the eight.

Torri Pringle was able to tack on one last run for Warner in the bottom of the eight with an RBI single off of AMU reliever Andrew Giddens.

Bobby Oliver capped off his big day with an RBI single in the ninth to make the final score 14-4 in favor of Ave Maria.

Senior Zach Quayle earned his fifth win of the year for the Gyrenes and Jose Hernandez took the loss for the Royals.

UP NEXT: The Gyrenes will now head into the final week of the 2015 baseball season with two games left on the schedule. Ave Maria will be back in action on Wednesday as they travel to Barry University to take on the NCAA Division II Buccaneers. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. in Miami Shores. For all the latest news and updates from Ave Maria University baseball and all things Gyrene athletics, please continue to visit avemariagyrenes.com.    

By Sean Buchanan | sean.buchanan@avemaria.edu