MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.- The Ave Maria University softball team pulled off perhaps their most dramatic comeback of the season on Tuesday evening, erasing a 3-1 seventh inning deficit in a 4-3 victory over the St. Thomas University Bobcats in Miami Gardens. The dramatic win, which saw AMU score three times in the top of the seventh, gave the Gyrenes their eleventh SUN win of the season and kept Ave Maria in fourth place.
After two scoreless innings started the contest, St. Thomas opened the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the third. A one-out single from Sophia Negron, as well as back-to-back singles with two outs from Daniela Bautista and Deavyn McDade, put the Bobcats on the board. A second run scored on an error, but Katelynn Sebastiani came up big defensively, throwing out a potential third run at the plate to end the inning.
Ave Maria responded in the top of the fourth, scoring once to cut the STU lead to 2-1. Morgan Grimm led off with a single, and Elena Dybiec added one of her own to put runners on first and second. Annie Nudera moved both runners up with a bunt, and a sacrifice fly from Maggie Hampton scored pinch runner Gracie Lopez from third to give the Gyrenes their first run of the evening.
St. Thomas took advantage of two Ave Maria errors to add an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth. Negron and Gabriella Gilbert both reached on AMU miscues, which put the runners on second and third with no outs. McDade added her second RBI of the day with a sacrifice fly, giving the Bobcats a 3-1 lead that would last to the seventh.
The Gyrene rally in the seventh started with a leadoff single from Nudera. She moved up to second on an error off the bat of Kylee Lewis, putting runners on first and second with one out. Sebastiani was next, and she singled up the middle to score Nudera, cutting the STU lead to 3-2. After a fielder's choice accounted for the second out, Marisa Michi stepped to the plate and clubbed a two-run triple down the right field line, giving Ave Maria their first lead of the day.
Michi's triple marked the second time this season where the AMU shortstop provided seventh-inning heroics. Michi also hit a go-ahead two-run home run in Ave Maria's win over Bethel at The Spring Games. The Chicago native was the lone Gyrene wth two hits, while five other AMU players accounted for one each.
Alissa Bolinger tossed her 14th complete game of the season, which included slamming the door shut in the bottom of the seventh. Bolinger's complete game gave her win number 14 on the season, and dropped her earned run average to 2.22 on the season.
AMU will look for an all-important series victory Wednesday against the Bobcats, needing to take one game of the doubleheader to take the series. First pitch of the doubleheader in Miami Gardens is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.
