AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Gyrenes walked-off game one of a double header with the Purdue Northwest Pride to split the two games with the NCAA DII school and improve to 19-6 ending their non-conference portion of the schedule. The Gyrenes won game one 16-14 and the Pride won game two 10-7.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, with a runner on and nobody out, David Leonardi crushed his tenth homer of the season, bringing home Francesco Barbieri and himself, and winning the game for the Gyrenes. It was Leonardi's first walk-off home run of his Ave Maria career, and the first proper walk-off of the season for Ave Maria (Barbieri hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning against Warner earlier this year to trigger the mercy rule against the Royals, giving Ave Maria their first walk-off of the season in mercy rule fashion). On top of all that, it was Leonardi's 24th home run of his Ave Maria career, making him the all-time career home run leader in AMU history, passing Andy Hernandez who played for the Gyrenes from 2015-19.
The walk-off was the exclamation mark to what was a very good game that saw two lead changes and multiple big innings between the two teams.
Ave Maria got on the board first with a six-spot in the second inning. After three runs had been brought in on walks and hit-by-pitches with the bases loaded, Jose Gonzalez ripped a three-RBI double to left field to put AMU up 6-0.
Purdue Northwest got their first runs a half inning later with a three-run bomb to right field. In the next inning, the Pride tacked on another run to get within two, but the Gyrenes responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth to take an 8-4 lead.
PNW got within one run in the top of the fifth, plating three more runs. After keeping the Gyrenes scoreless in the bottom half, the Pride took their first lead of the game with a seven-run top of the sixth to go up 14-8. The Pride hit two home runs in that inning, bringing their game total to four. That's tied for the most home runs allowed by the AMU pitching staff this season, matching the four long balls given up to the Brewton-Parker Barons back in February in a game the Gyrenes lost 12-4.
Not to be outdone though, the Gyrenes put up another six-spot in the bottom of the sixth inning, all with two outs out the board. With the bases loaded, Tynan Shahidi singled to left field which brought home two runs and got the rally started. Connor James then drew a walk to load the bases again and Daniel Caylor added on two more runs for the Gyrenes with a two-RBI single of his own. Jimmy Coffey brought the final two runs of the inning in the next at-bat with a single to centerfield that scored James and Caylor to tie the game at 14.
Justin David came out to pitch the top of the seventh, and shut down the top 3 batters for the Pride in a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. It was the first time PNW had been kept scoreless in a frame which paved the way for Leonardi's walk-off home run.
David earned the win as the pitcher of record and improves to 2-0 on the season. The six-run deficit the Gyrenes overcame to win the game was the biggest margin AMU has surpassed this season.
Game two saw just as much action, but unfortunately did not see the Gyrenes prevail as they dropped their first home game of the season. Purdue Northwest scored early and often, getting out to a 9-0 lead through first two and a half innings. The Pride hit their fifth and final home run of the day as part of a six-run top of the second.
The Gyrenes began their attempted comeback in the bottom of the third inning when they put up four runs to cut the Pride's lead down to five. Gonzalez and Shahidi teamed up for RBI base hits, Gonzalez bringing home two runs off a double and Shahidi bringing home one of a single. Shahidi scored the final run of the inning for AMU when James reached safely on an error. Tanner Kelly also hit a single in the bottom of the third to get on base and score a run off Gonzalez's double. Combined with a hit-by-pitch and a walk in the first game, Kelly extended his already school record setting on-base streak to 25 games. Kelly also ended the 2022 season on a 15-game on-base streak, which means Kelly has reached base safely in the last 40 games over his two years at Ave Maria.
In the fourth, the two teams traded a run and the Gyrenes tacked on two more in the bottom of the fifth off RBI hits from Coffey and Cole Rasbury. Ave Maria attempted a rally in the sixth and seventh innings, but the Pride were able to go six-up, six-down in the final two frames.
With the split, the Gyrenes improve to 19-6 overall and 16-6 in non-conference play. The Gyrenes have two more non-conference doubleheaders against Fort Lauderdale in April, but Sunday's games were the end of their bulk non-conference game schedule where they played all 22 games in a row. Ave Maria moves to conference play next week with a series against the Florida Memorial Lions, starting Friday, March 17, in Miami Gardens. The Gyrenes started their season against conference opponent Thomas where they swept the Night Hawks and have been sitting in first place in the conference at 3-0 for the last 44 days. They look to defend that placement in their three-game set with the Lions.
Ave Maria will be back at Bowie's Ballpark March 24 when they open a three-game set against the #13 St. Thomas Bobcats. All conference games, home and away, can be streamed on the Sun Digital Network.
