Lake Wales, FL -- The Ave Maria University baseball team rallied from an early 4-0 deficit to begin the final conference series of the season with a win, an 11-6 triumph over the Warner University Royals. The Gyrenes scored eight unanswered runs to turn 4-0 into an 8-4 lead.
 
Warner took the 4-0 lead in the first inning, and plated three of the four runs with two outs. Rodocker got the Royals on the board with an RBI single, and Pike followed with a run-scoring single of his own.
Dauphinee extended the lead to four runs with a two-run double.
 
The Gyrenes began chipping into the lead with a run in the top of the second. Andy Hernandez led off the frame with a double, and was moved to third base on a Mason Dinesen single. Matt Wiles drove in Hernandez with a sacrifice fly, pulling AMU within three runs.
 
AMU evened the score in the fourth, putting a three-spot on the board to tie the game at four. Ryan Keegan started the action with a single, which was followed by a walk to Hernandez. Keegan scored on an error off the bat of Dinesen, which put Dinesen on second and Hernandez on third. A Ryan Cook groundout plated Hernandez, and after walks to Matt Wiles and Justin Hartshorne, Dinesen scored on an error put in play by Tully Allen.
 
Ave took the lead for good in the fifth, thanks to one of the five Warner errors in the contest. Rico Soto reached on an error in left field, and wound up on third base when the dust settled. After Keegan was hit by a pitch, Hernandez gave AMU the lead with a fielder's choice to the shortstop.
 
The last of the eight consecutive runs came in the seventh, as the Gyrenes added three. The surge started with a Keegan single, and Hernandez extended the frame with a walk. Dinesen drove in Keegan with a single, and Ryan Cook made it 8-4 with a double.
 
Warner got two runs back in the bottom of the seventh, but the Gyrenes clinched victory with three in the top of the ninth. Dinesen drove in another run with a single that scored Soto, and the last of Warner's errors allowed both Dinesen and Hernandez to score.
 
Dinesen led the way for the Gyrenes with three hits, three runs scored, and three runs batted in. Austin Munn tossed five scoreless innings after a rough first inning to earn a victory in his final start in the Blue and Green.
 
The 2017 season comes to an end on Saturday, as the Gyrenes and Royals do battle in doubleheader action in Lake Wales.