AVE MARIA, Fla.- The Ave Maria University softball team earned their second win of the season over a top ten opponent on Friday, winning the opening game of a doubleheader with the No. 10 Mariners of the College of Coastal Georgia. The Gyrenes rolled in the opener, thrashing the Mariners by a 9-2 score, but Coastal Georgia rallied to force a Saturday rubber match with a 9-4 win in the nightcap.
The Gyrenes got on the board early, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Ryanne Saluter led off the Gyrenes' half with a double, and moved up to third on a wild pitch. With two outs, Morgan Grimm singled up the middle to drive in Saluter. Grimm then moved to third on a single from Elena Dybiec, and made it 2-0 when she scored on another wild pitch.
A third run crossed the plate for the Gyrenes in the third. Ashley Nelson continued her hot hitting with a one-out double, but pinch runner Gracie Lopez remained on second with two outs. Dybiec came through with her second hit of the afternoon, a single to left center that scored Lopez from second.
Ave Maria blew the game wide open in the fifth, scoring four runs to extend the lead to 7-0. A double from Marisa Michi, coupled with a Nelson single and a walk to Grimm, loaded the bases with no outs. The first run scored on an error, with two more runs coming in when Annie Nudera singled to right field. After a Coastal Georgia pitching change, Padgett drove in the seventh Ave Maria run with a grounder to second.
Coastal Georgia and Ave Maria traded runs in the sixth, with both teams scoring twice. The runs were provided by Ave Maria's two top hitters in the win, as Nelson clubbed an RBI double and Dybiec ripped a run-scoring single to conclude the scoring.
Alissa Bolinger picked up her 12th win of the season, tossing six innings of strong softball. The sophomore helped leave 13 Coastal Georgia runners on base, as the Mariners could manage just two runs on their eleven hits. At the plate, Nelson and Dybiec both had three hits and accounted for three runs - Nelson scored two and drove in one, while Dybiec drove in two and scored another.
AMU again took the initial lead in the second game, going up 1-0 in the bottom of the first. Michi started the action with a one-out single, then came all the way around to score on a double from Morgan Grimm, the 24th RBI of the season for the senior.
The Mariners took control of the game from there, scoring twice in the third and four times in the fourth. A Melani Jones single tied the game in the third, and Kayla Rowell gave Coastal Georgia the lead with a single of her own. RBIs in the fourth inning were provided by Rori Rhodes, Sarah Thinger, Jones, and McCall Maret, giving the Mariners a 6-1 lead.
Ave Maria loaded the bases in the fourth on three consecutive singles, but got just one run across on a Padgett sacrifice fly. The Gyrenes cut the Coastal Georgia lead to 6-4 in the sixth on RBI doubles from Maggie Hampton and Kylee Lewis, but the Mariners answered with three runs in the top of the seventh to put the game away.
Four Gyrenes had two hits in game two, as Ave Maria was able to churn out a dozen hits. Dybiec added two more hits to her three in the opener, and was joined in the multi-hit column by Grimm, Nudera, and Padgett.
After splitting the games on Friday, the Gyrenes and the No. 10 Mariners will conclude their Sun Conference series Saturday at 11 a.m. at the AMU Softball Field in Ave Maria.
