LAKELAND, Fla. — The Gyrenes fell to the reigning national champions and currently No. 1 team Southeastern Fire 10-5 in a midweek contest Tuesday, February 21. The Fire scored all 10 runs in the first three innings with the Gyrenes scraping their runs together in the middle frames.

Once Southeastern was done scoring in the opening three frames, the Gyrenes finally got on the board in the top of the fourth. Jose Gonzalez got reached on base with a two-out error, and then the next batter, Francesco Barbieri, hit his second home run of the season. That's now back-to-back games with two-run home runs for Barbieri.

AMU tacked on another run the next inning when Tanner Kelly hit an RBI single to left field, scoring Jimmy Coffey. Coffey got on base due to another error from the Fire defense, making all three runs for the Gyrenes so far unearned.

The Gyrenes got their final two runs of the game in the eighth inning, with these two being the first two runs counted as earned against Southeastern pitching. Daniel Caylor got things started with a leadoff walk, and then two batters later, David Leonardi hit his sixth home run of the season. That gave the final score of 10-5. With six homers through 13 games, Leonardi is on pace for 22 home runs, double the school record for homers in a season which he set last year.

Thought the Fire jumped on Gyrene pitching early, Matt Barragy came out of the bullpen and tossed four hitless innings while striking out two to end the game.

With the loss, Ave Maria falls to 9-4. Next up on the schedule is a weekend doubleheader at home against the Massachusetts Maritime Buccaneers, a NCAA DIII school from the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference, MASCAC. The Gyrenes swept the Buccaneers in a doubleheader last year, winning game one 9-1 and game two 7-0. The game will be broadcasted on the Sun Digital Network.