JUPITER, Fla. --- The Ave Maria baseball team rallied from four-down to take a 7-4 lead in the eighth before Taylor scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth and ninth to stun the Gyrenes 8-7 in their opener.
 
The two teams return to the field tomorrow for a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m. The game are being played at Marlins Field 7 at Roger Dean Baseball Complex in Jupiter.
 
Pitching dominated the early part of the game with Andrew Steele and Taylor's Matt Patton keeping each team scoreless until Taylor tallied three runs in the sixth. The Trojans added a run in the seventh to make it 4-0 Taylor.
 
Back-to-back singles and a walk to start the seventh inning loaded the bases for Rico Soto who was hit by a pitch to plate AMU's first run. Ryan Keegan followed up Soto with a three-RBI triple to tie the game at four. Nick Wydler kept it going for AMU with a double to bring in Keegan and give the Blue and Green a 5-4 edge.
 
After a couple outs and an intentional walk, Matt Wiles singled up the middle to score both Alex Perez and Nick Wydler.
 
With AMU leading 7-4 heading to the bottom of the eighth, Taylor scored two runs on one hit to get within one.
 
After the Gyrenes got the first out of the ninth inning, back-to-back singles by Taylor put runners on the corners for Taylor. The next batter doubled down the left field line to plate both baserunners to put Taylor in front 8-7.
 
Matt Wiles was 3-for-3 with two RBI, a walk and a run scored. Tully Allen was 2-for-3 for AMU with two RBI, two walks, and a run scored.  Nick Wydler also finished with multiple hits, going 2-for-5 with an RBI and run scored.