MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Ave Maria Gyrenes swept the Florida Memorial Lions in a doubleheader Saturday to win their second conference series of the season. Both wins for the Gyrenes were come from behind wins in the final two innings, with Ave Maria winning game one 8-6 and game two 7-6.
The early stages of game one was dominated by the Lions. The brought home two runs in the first inning, a run in the second, and two more in the fifth. The Gyrenes only grabbed one run during that time frame, with Daniel Caylor hit a solo home run in the top of the second. It was Caylor's first home run of the season, and the first Ave Maria home run not hit by David Leonardi since Francesco Barbieri went deep against Southeastern February 21.
The comeback for the Gyrenes started in the sixth inning with Jimmy Coffey hitting a sacrifice fly to score Caylor and Michael Signorelli singling up the middle to bring home Barbieri. Those two runs had Ave Maria only down 5-3.
In the eighth, the Gyrenes took the lead with a five-run inning. The scoring started with Cole Rasbury hitting an RBI single to bring home Barbieri. Tanner Kelly kept the rally going with an RBI single of his own, bringing home Coffey and Rasbury and putting the Gyrenes up 6-5. Jose Gonzalez added a little insurance to that lead with a two-RBI single of his own that scored Tanner Kelly and his brother Michael Kelly, who was pinch running for Michael Signorelli.
The Lions got a run back in the bottom of the ninth in an attempt to comeback themselves, but reliever Brandon Willoughby was shut down on the mound. The sophomore from Speedway, Indiana, pitched the final 4.1 innings and only allowed that lone run in the ninth. Willoughby also scattered four hits over that time span, walked one and struck out two, earning his second win of the season.
Game two was eerily identical to game one. The series' rubber match started with Florida Memorial jumping out to a 5-1 lead after the first five innings, just like game one. The lone run for the Gyrenes in that time frame also came in the second inning, this time off the bat of Signorelli. The junior catcher reached on a fielder's choice with the FMU defense focusing on throwing out Connor James and letting Coffey score.
Again, similar to the early game, the comeback for AMU began in the sixth inning with Tynan Shahidi hitting an infield single that scored Caylor and brought the Gyrenes within three.
After another scoreless seventh, the Gyrenes scored multiple runs in the eighth to take a lead. Shahidi got his second RBI of the game with another infield single to scored Jose Gonzalez. James brought home two runs a couple at-bats later with a single to right center scoring Shahidi and Barbieri. Cole Rasbury gave the Gyrenes a 6-5 edge in the top of the eighth, singling to score Michael Kelly, who was pinch running again for Signorelli.
Finally, where the two games on Saturday diverge is in the bottom of the eighth, when Florida Memorial brought home a run to tie the game at 6.
Ave Maria scored the deciding run in the top of the ninth. With two on and two out, Coffey singled through the left side, bringing home Shahidi. It is the third last at-bat win of the season for the Gyrenes.
Willoughby came out for the ninth inning, making an appearance in both games. Despite allowing one hit, he induced two flyouts and groundout to get his second save of the season. Chis Cuppini, who tossed the seventh and eighth inning, was the pitcher of record for Ave Maria and his record improved to 2-0.
Lastly, Tanner Kelly kept his record-setting on-base streak alive, getting a hit in both games of the doubleheader. The junior from Libertyville, Illinois, has now reached base safely in all 28 games of the season, six games over the previous record set in 2021 by Dylan Moser and tied last season by Brody Rubenstein.
With the two wins, the Gyrenes are 21-7 overall and 5-1 in conference play. Ave Maria also improved to 3-1 this season in three-game series.
Ave Maria will be home for their next six games, starting with a weekend series against St. Thomas. The Bobcats are ranked 13th in the most recent NAIA top 25 poll released March 8th. STU also started their conference schedule over the weekend and swept the Thomas Night Hawks. Game one on Friday, March 24, with first pitch set for 2 p.m. Games two and three will be a doubleheader on Saturday, with first pitch of the early game set for 12 p.m. and the final game of the series to start 30 minutes after the conclusion of game two. All three games can be streamed on the Sun Digital Network either on the website or the app available on most cellular devices and smart TVs.
