AVE MARIA, Fla.- The Ave Maria University baseball team took a game off the No. 13 team in the nation on Tuesday, winning the opening game of a doubleheader with the Warriors of Webber International University. The Gyrenes, who saw some school history made on Tuesday, took the opener by a decisive 9-3 final score before falling in the nightcap, 13-10.

Ave Maria never trailed in the opening game of the doubleheader, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first. Singles from Daniel Caylor and Tanner Kelly started the action, with Caylor proceeding to score on an error off the bat of Kolby Blanchard. Jose Gonzalez drove in Kelly and Blanchard to make it 3-0, then scored himself on an RBI single from David Leonardi. 

The long ball did the damage for Ave Maria in the second inning. With one out, Kelly launched his first home run of the season over the left field fence, increasing the AMU lead to 5-0. After a walk to Blanchard, Gonzalez belted his sixth home run of the season, giving the Gyrenes a game-high lead of seven runs. 

After Webber scored a run in the third and two in the fourth to cut the Gyrene lead to 7-3, the Gyrenes answered with runs in the fourth and fifth innings to retake control of the contest. Dylan Moser came through with a two-out single in the fourth to score Kelly, while Caylor singled up the middle in the fifth inning to score Rossi for the final run of the opener.

Kevin Figueredo pitched well in a scheduled short start for the Gyrenes, allowing just one run over three innings to earn his second win of the season. Matt Barragy pitched the fourth inning, while Kolby Pemberton shut out the Warriors in the final three innings to earn his first save as a Gyrene. Kelly and Gonzalez led the Gyrenes at the plate, combining for six hits, five runs scored, and five runs batted in. 

Webber jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first inning of the nightcap, but the Gyrenes got right back in it with four runs of their own. Jose Gonzalez drove in his fifth run of the day with an RBI groundout, and a Dylan Moser single cut the lead to 4-2. Harrison Rossi trimmed Webber's lead to two runs on a two-run double to left field, scoring Moser and David Leonardi. 

The Gyrenes then tied the game in the second inning, answering one Webber run with three of their own. Caylor started the frame by reaching on an error, and Gonzalez drew a walk with two outs. Moser drove in both runners with a triple to right center, then scored on a single up the middle from Leonardi.

In the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, Webber would score a run in the top half, and Ave Maria would answer with one in the bottom half. An RBI groundout from Gonzalez did the damage in the fourth, while a solo home run to lead off the inning by Leonardi tied the game at nine in the fifth. The final of Ave Maria's runs came in the sixth, coming on a single to left field from Gonzalez. The decisive hit of the game came on a three-run homer from the Warriors in the seventh.

With seven RBIs on the day, Gonzalez logged his 45th RBI of the season, becoming Ave Maria's all-time single-season leader in the category. The freshman from Hialeah breaks a record that has stood for nearly nine years, when Trace McDermott drove in 44 runs in 2013.

A three game series with another nationally ranked team, the No. 18 Warner University Royals, begins Friday at 2:00 p.m. at Bowie's Ballpark in Ave Maria.