AVE MARIA, Fla. – Freshman Hayden Sullivan laced a clutch two-out single to drive in the winning run to lift the Ave Maria University baseball team to an 8-7 victory in the opening game of a doubleheader with No. 14 St. Thomas (Fla.) on Saturday afternoon at Bowie's Ballpark.
Freshman starting pitcher Ryan Schroeder gave AMU a solid start in the opener and put the Gyrenes in position for Sullivan's late-inning heroics with a 6.1 inning effort that saw him allow five runs and eight hits while striking out seven.
St. Thomas bounced back for an 8-3 victory in game two and were led by a five RBI performance on a pair of home runs by senior Daniel Mondejar –including a key three-run shot in the top of the fourth.
With the split, the Gyrenes record moves to 14-25 overall and 4-11 in Sun Conference action. St. Thomas sits at 26-16 and 12-6 in league play.
Ave Maria claimed an early 2-0 lead in the opener following an RBI double by Wilfredo Acevedo and a run-scoring groundout by Sullivan in the bottom of the second.
Mondejar singled in a run for the Bobcats in the top of the fourth before Alex Perez answered for AMU with a single that drove home a pair in the bottom half to up the AMU margin to 4-1.
Chris Schoeller singled to left field to plate a pair for St. Thomas in the fifth – getting the Bobcats within one at 4-3.
AMU added two scores in the sixth to raise the lead to 6-3 on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Daniel Caylor and an RBI double by Perez.
St. Thomas plated four in the seventh to claim its first lead at 7-6. Alejandro Rivero provided the big blow with a double to deep right center that scored three.
Caylor drove in his second run of the game with a single in the eighth to tie the score at 7-7, setting up the rally in the ninth.
Junior Zach Zinck (1-0) earned the win for AMU after tossing two innings of shutout relief. The right hander allowed one hit and struck out two.
The second game also saw AMU jump out to an early lead on a two-run jack by freshman David Leonardi in the bottom of the second.
Mondejar launched his first of two homers in the fourth to plate three and give the Bobcats a 3-2 edge. AMU tied the game at 3-3 in the fifth when Clayton Stanley drew a bases loaded walk.
St. Thomas went on to score the next five runs to close out the victory. Mondejar hit a two-run shot to key a three-run sixth and recorded a pair of RBI hits in the seventh to score its final two runs of the contest.
The Gyrenes hit the road next weekend for a three-game Sun Conference set at the University of South Carolina Beaufort beginning on Friday, April 16 at 3 p.m. EDT.
