AVE MARIA, Fla. – The Ave Maria University baseball team fell by a 9-0 margin in the opener of a three-game conference series vs. No. 15 Keiser University on Friday afternoon at Bowie's Ballpark.
Keiser senior Pablo Arevalo tossed a complete-game shutout to improve to a perfect 3-0 on the season. The right hander limited the Gyrenes to five hits and struck out 10 over nine innings. Arevalo did not issue a single walk and nearly 80 percent of his pitches went for strikes.
Sophomore Callan Carn took the loss despite a solid outing which saw the right hander allow four runs, three earned and seven hits over 6.0 innings. Junior lefty Kyle Conway tossed the final three innings and gave up five runs on nine hits.
Keiser jumped out to an early 3-0 edge in the top of the first. Ben McConnell led off the game with a single and stole second, before bringing driven in on a Mason Dinesen single for the game's first run. Tim Bouchard followed with an RBI double to plate Dinesen before scoring on an error by AMU shortstop Hayden Sullivan.
The two teams managed just a combined three hits over the next three and a half frames before Keiser added a run in the top of the fifth on a RBI single from Mathew Catalfo. Bouchard added his second run-scoring hit of the game with a single in the top of the seventh to increase the advantage to 5-0.
The Seahawks closed out the scoring with a four-run top of the ninth that was keyed by a three-run homer by Nick LaBrasca.
The Gyrenes finished the contest with five hits, with the lone extra base knock coming off the bat of Brody Rubenstein on a double in the sixth. Senior Ethan Bergkamp notched a single to extend his hitting streak to four consecutive games. Rubenstein has also registered at least one hit in each of the season's initial four games.
The loss drops the Gyrenes' overall record to 1-3 and 0-1 in Sun Conference action. Keiser improves to a perfect 9-0 and 1-0 in conference play following the victory.
Ave Maria and Keiser return to the Bowie's Ballpark diamond on Saturday for a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m. EST.