St. Petersburg, FL -- The Ave Maria University baseball team rallied from an early 3-0 deficit, but eventually fell 8-5 to the Eckerd College Tritons in St. Petersburg on Wednesday night. A four-run fifth inning proved to be the difference in Ave Maria's first midweek loss of the season.
Eckerd's 3-0 lead came via two runs in the bottom of the first inning and another in the bottom of the third. Four consecutive Triton singles in the opening inning supplied the first run of the game, driven in by Conti. The lead moved to 2-0 on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Achuff. A sacrifice fly also made the game 3-0 in the third, as Buonopane drove in Conti on a flyball to left.
The Gyrenes answered by tying the game in the top of the fourth inning. Rico Soto began the inning with a single, and proceeded to steal second and take third on a wild pitch. After a walk to Ryan Keegan, Soto scored on an Andy Hernandez single. Matt Wiles walked to load the bases with one out, and a passed ball allowed Keegan to score. Miles Stevens evened the score on a sacrifice fly in foul territory, which brought Hernandez across the plate.
A two-out single gave Eckerd the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth inning. With runners on first and third, Conti drove in his second run of the game with a single. Despite the inning ending when the runner on first, Cochrane, was tagged out at third, the Tritons possessed a 4-3 lead.
Eckerd put the game away with four runs in the bottom of the fifth, all of which came after a double play and all of which were unearned.
After the double play left the leadoff hitter on third, a throwing error off the bat of Glover pushed Calandra across the plate. A Miller double moved runners to second and third, and a Hebda single stretched the lead to 6-3. Another throwing error on an attempted steal plated the seventh run, and Hiott concluded the Triton scoring with an RBI single.
Ave Maria scored the final two runs of the game, scoring one each in the sixth and the ninth. Mason Dinesen drove in the sixth inning score on a groundout, which was set up by a double from Hernandez. The run in the ninth came from Ryan Cook, who drove in Tully Allen on a single. Allen, Dinesen, and Hernandez were Ave Maria's leading hitters on the game, each tallying a pair of hits.
Kevin Kane earned the victory for Eckerd, while CJ Bottiglieri was charged with the loss. Ave Maria's final three pitchers- Tommy Craparo, Christian Dufresne, and Justin Bureau- did not allow a hit and struck out six hitters over their 3.1 innings of combined work.
The Gyrenes will look to get on the board in conference play on Friday afternoon, hosting the first of three games with Webber International University at Bowie's Ballpark. First pitch of the series is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
