AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Gyrenes mercy ruled the Warner Royals 11-1 in seven innings Tuesday. The Gyrenes put up the bulk of their runs in the first two innings, and then cruised for the rest of the game.
In the first inning, the Gyrenes put up their seventh big inning (an inning in which a team scores five or more runs) of the season. The scoring started with David Leonardi crushing his fifth homer of the season and putting Ave Maria up 2-0. Now a quarter through the season, Leonardi is on pace for a 20-homer season. The scoring continued a few batters later when Tynan Shahidi, with runners on the corners, hit an RBI single to right field that scored Jose Gonzalez. The next batter, Cole Rasbury, hit his own RBI single to right field that scored Francesco Barbieri, and moved Shahidi to third. Shahidi scored the final run of the inning during the next at bat when he came into score off a wild pitch.
In the second inning, Royals' pitcher Liam Felix got two quick strikeouts and looked to put the first inning behind him, but the Gyrenes kept him from closing out the frame. Tanner Kelly got the two-out rally started with a single up the middle. Kelly then stole second during the next at bat, giving him 10 on the year, which leads all NAIA players in the nation. Ave Maria as a team now has 35 stolen bases in 2023, which is the second highest total in the NAIA.
Leonardi followed that up with a double to right field, that scored Kelly and put Ave Maria up 6-0. After Gonzalez singled to put runners on the corners, Barbieri smashed a ball to right field that was just a foot short of leaving the ballpark, but did roll off the wall and allowed Leonardi and Gonzalez to score while Barbieri rushed over to second for a standup double. The Gyrenes tacked on one more hit to put runners at the corners again and chase the starter Felix, but the next pitcher for the Royals finally got the Gyrenes to ground into the third out of the inning.
In the top of the third inning, starter Cameron Horner got the Royals to go 1-2-3 for the third consecutive inning and was pulled due to pitch count concerns since he tossed game one of the double header against Trinity Baptist Friday, February 10. Before the game however, Horner was declared as only a three inning starter, so even though he did not got the full five innings required, he was the pitcher of record for the Gyrenes and improved to 4-0 on the season. His final stat line was a perfect three innings pitched, nine batters up, nine batters down, with 3 strikeouts.
Kevin Figueredo came out of the bullpen to relieve Horner in the fourth inning and tossed two innings, allowing one run off two hits, and striking out four. It was Figueredo's third game of the season and first appearance out of the bullpen. Matt Barragy pitched the final two inning of the game, making his second appearance of the season and first at home. Barragy gave up two hits, but no runs and record one strikeout.
The Gyrenes offense was kept quiet during the middle innings but finally got back on the board in the sixth when Daniel Caylor got his first hit of the game, scoring Eric Havner, who was pinch running for catcher Axel Melendez, putting Ave Maria up 9-1.
Entering the seventh inning, the Gyrenes were two runs away from mercy ruling Warner, and they did so in dramatic fashion. Gonzalez got the inning started by drawing a leadoff walk. Then Barbieri, who had almost gotten his first dinger of the season, stepped into a pitched and crushed the ball way over the right field wall, putting the Gyrenes up by ten and "walking-off" with a mercy rule. Not only was it the first homer of the season for the senior from Brampton, Ontario, it was the first time in his Ave Maria career that he record three hits in a single game.
With the win, the Gyrenes improve to 9-3 on the season. They will get the weekend off before traveling up to Lakeland, Florida, to take on the No. 1 and reigning national Champions, Southeastern Fire, February 21. Like Tuesday's game, though the matchup is between two Sun Conference teams, the game will not count towards both team's conference records, just their overall records. Following that game, the Gyrenes are back home at Bowie's Ballpark to play a doubleheader against the Massachusetts Maritime Buccaneers Saturday, February 25. All three of those games will be broadcasted on The Sun Digital Network.
