The Ave Maria University baseball team succumbed to early woes, and dropped two games and the series to Warner on Saturday at Bowie's Ballpark, falling 7-2 and 5-3. Before the game, Ave Maria's senior baseball class was honored.
 
GAME ONE RECAP
The Gyrenes could not recover from a four-run first inning by Warner, and fell to the Royals 7-2 in the opening game of the doubleheader.
The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for Ave Maria.
 
In the opening frame, Warner pushed across four runs on four hits, with the aid of an error. An RBI single by Junior Fermin put the Royals on the board, and a single by Jose Fortuna extended the lead to 2-0. Jordan Pike capped the inning with a two out, two-run double to give Warner its 4-0 lead.
 
Ave Maria was able to get a run back in the bottom of the first. RJ Warnock drew a walk and stole second base with one out, and came around to score on a Rico Soto RBI double. Soto's double was his 38th run batted in of the season.
 
Warner's lead was trimmed to 4-2 in the bottom of the third, again thanks to Soto. Jack Yvars singled and stole second base, leading to a single from Soto. The Naples native, who recorded three hits in the contest, ended the game with 39 RBIs, tied for the fourth best single season total in school history.
 
The Royals scored two more runs in the top of the sixth, getting the lead back to four runs. Tomas Rivera and Gerson Sotolongo each reached base to begin the inning, and scored on an error and an RBI single from Tyler Dauphinee.
 
Warner concluded the scoring in the top of the ninth, scoring on a bases loaded walk to Sotolongo. The walk allowed Fermin to touch the plate and record the seventh Royal run.
 
Tyler Perkins picked up the win for Warner, striking out nine Gyrene hitters in the process. Andrew Steele was charged with the loss.
 
GAME TWO RECAP
The first inning woes again cost the Gyrenes, as another four-run start for Warner proved to be the difference in the Royals' 5-3 victory over Ave Maria. The win propelled Warner to the series victory and dropped the Gyrenes to 5-18 in Sun Conference play.
 
Warner's four first inning runs came on a succession of four hits, as well as a key Gyrene error. After starter Christian Dufresne retired the first two hitters of the game, each of the next four recorded a single to bring two runs across the plate. Jose Fortuna and Tomas Rivera each drove in a run with their hit. The final two runs of the inning scored on an error, when a flyball to right was misplayed.
 
The Royals scored again in the top of the fifth, as an RBI single from Gerson Sotolongo drove in Taran Tipton to give Warner a 5-0 lead over the Gyrenes.
 
Ave answered with a run of their own to trim the Warner lead back to four runs. Sean Trymbiski led off with a single, and a double from Jack Yvars put runners on second and third. Rico Soto drove in his 40th run of the season on a groundout, scoring Trymbiski. With the grounder, Soto became just the fourth player in school history to drive in 40 runs in a season.
 
AMU cut the lead to three runs in the next inning, loading the bases with no outs on three consecutive singles from Ryan Keegan, Andy Hernandez, and Christian Sanchez. Max Nell drove in Keegan on a sacrifice fly, but the Gyrenes couldn't push any more across. Sanchez led the Gyrene offense by going 3-for-4.
 
In the bottom of the ninth, Ave Maria put the first two runners on base, and a sacrifice fly by Conor Sullivan- in his final plate appearance at Bowie's Ballpark- brought the Gyrenes within two runs.
However, a double play ball snuffed out Ave Maria's comeback hopes.
 
Despite a quality outing, Christian Dufresne was charged with the loss for the Gyrenes, while Cole Roark was awarded with the win.
 
The baseball season comes to an end on Monday, when the Gyrenes play a doubleheader with FLorida Memorial University, the first of which will count as a conference game. The doubleheader is set to begin at 1 p.m.
at FMU.