CLERMONT, Fla. --- The Ave Maria softball team fought off elimination in their first game of the day, defeating Thomas 8-5, before falling to USCB in 12 innings later in the day 4-3. AMU finishes the season with a 22-20 overall record.
 
Against Thomas in their first elimination game, the Lady Gyrenes struck early and often, scoring twice in each of the first three innings.
 
AMU got their first runs on a Marinna Shadley RBI double to bring in Kingsley Avery. Shadley eventually came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Deanna Stirtzinger.
 
In the second inning, Marissa Conde and Miranda Dessecker scored on a 2-RBI single by Avery. The third inning saw Alyssa Colding score on a Danielle Garcia single to left field. Later in the inning, Stirtzinger scored on a sacrifice bunt by Dessecker to make it 6-0.
 
Thomas responded with three runs in the third and one in the fourth to cut the AMU advantage to two, 6-4.
 
Ave Maria added two insurance runs in the top of the sixth on a Shadley RBI single to bring in Dessecker and a sac fly by Sadie Mosher to plate Avery. The Night Hawks added a run in the bottom half of the inning to make the final 8-5 in favor of AMU.
 
Avery finished game one 4-for-5 at the plate with two RBI and two runs scored. Shadley and Conde each had two hits.
 
Mosher picked up the win for the Lady Gyrenes, pitching a complete game while allowing five runs, four earned, on eight hits and three walks. She struck out four.
 
In their second elimination game of the day, Ave Maria battled USCB in a 12-inning pitcher's duel. Emily Lemin allowed four runs, one earned, in an 11-inning, 165-pitch outing. She allowed eight hits and walked four while striking out six.
 
Tied 1-1 heading to the top of the 11th inning, the Lady Gyrenes plated a pair of runs on a bases-loaded hit by pitch to score Mosher and a RBI groundout by Conde to bring in Colding.
 
In the bottom of the 11th, USCB took advantage of three AMU errors to again tie the game at 3-all. Back-to-back hits by the Sand Sharks, a single and a double, allowed USCB to bring in the game winning run after 12 innings.