AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Gyrenes swept their doubleheader over the Fort Lauderdale Eagles Tuesday afternoon, winning game one 6-0 and game two 10-5. With the two wins, the Gyrenes finished off their season series with the Eagles a perfect 4-0 and 10-1 all time against the budding UFTL program.
Ave Maria saw a new face on the mound in game one, as freshman Blake Albritton got the call to start game one. The freshman from Pinellas Park, Florida, had only pitched one other time for the Gyrenes this season, throwing 2.2 innings in a game against St. Thomas back in March. However, the Gyrenes had pounced on the Bobcats in that game and were leading 10-2 when he entered the game, so this start featured his first meaningful innings of the season, and Albritton did not disappoint.
The rookie tossed six scoreless frames, only allowing three hits and three walks, and striking out seven batters. Albritton began the game by striking out the side in the first and cruised from there on. If he got into a little bit of trouble on the basepaths, like in the second inning when a single and walk put two on with only one out, Albritton pitched to contact and let his defense take care of the game, getting a double play to end the inning. Albritton was on fire, and he kept his team in the game by keeping the Eagles uncharacteristically quiet.
At the plate, the Gyrenes were uncommonly held in check as well. Ave Maria was getting hits and baserunners throughout the game, but they were all left stranded on the basepaths. Through the first four innings, the Gyrenes tallied six hits, but no runs.
Fortunately, things changed in the fifth inning when Ave Maria finally broke through. Jose Gonzalez led things off with a single, and then came in to score a couple batters later off a Tynan Shahidi RBI single. Right after that, David Leonardi blasted his 14th home run of the season over the left-center wall, putting Ave Maria up 3-0, but they were still hungry for more runs. With two on and still only one out, Connor James singled to right field, scoring Jimmy Coffey, and moving Cole Rasbury to third. Coffey had a good game at the plate, registering three hits and one run. It was his 10th multi-hit game of the season, making him the sixth Gyrene to reach double digit multi-hit games in 2023. Tynan Shahidi also had a three-hit game, his sixth such game and 18th multi-hit game, while Gonzalez and James each had two-hit games, their 20th and ninth respectively.
Following the James single, Francesco Barbieri got his first plate appearance since being injured in March, pinch hitting for catcher Michael Signorelli and drawing a walk to load the bases. Tanner Kelly then stepped up to the plate and reached on fielder's choice, scoring Rasbury in the process. Kelly had already extended his record-setting on-base streak earlier in the game, now up to 43 games, when hit a leadoff single in the first. The final run of the inning and game came when James raced home to score on a wild pitch. That put Ave Maria up 6-0 and counted as their 23rd inning this season where they have scored five or more runs.
After Albritton shut down the sixth, Reagan Spolyar made his first appearance on the mound for Ave Maria since February, going 1-2-3 in the seventh and delivering the Gyrenes' 32nd win of the season. It was also the pitching staff's second shutout of the season.
Game two was very different from the early game, with Ave Maria jumping out to an early lead and scoring in almost every inning after that.
Ave Maria plated three runs in the first inning, scoring off a Shahidi single, a Leonardi groundout and a Rasbury single. Jose Gonzalez led off the game for the first time this season and was hit by a pitch and brought home on the Shahidi RBI. While his teammate Tanner Kelly obliterated the previous AMU on-base streak record earlier this year, Gonzalez has now passed it too and the two hits in game one and the hit by pitch to start game two boosted his streak to 25.
In the second inning, freshman Michael Kelly led off the inning, getting his first at bat in his first collegiate start. Kelly had been a pinch runner and bench player all season, but in game two of the doubleheader, got the nod over his brother to start the game at shortstop. He made quick work of the at bat, getting his first ever collegiate hit on an infield single. After a Gonzalez single, another three runs came into score off a Daniel Caylor double down the third base line, a Shahidi groundout and UFTL wild pitch. That put Ave Maria up to a comfortable 6-0 lead.
AMU tacked on another run in the fourth inning off a Leonardi sacrifice fly that scored Caylor.
Before the start of the of the fifth inning, the Gyrenes pulled their starter Kevin Figueredo after four solid innings of work. The junior from Miami didn't allow a run in that time frame and only gave up two hits while striking out five and walking none. It was a very good and encouraging start for Figueredo heading into the Sun Tournament next week.
Brennan Dolwick pitched the fifth and sixth for the Gyrenes doing well and getting three strikeouts during that time. Dolwick did allow the first run of the doubleheader in the sixth, with the Eagles getting one run in the top of the sixth. Luckily, the Gyrenes had already scored two more runs before that, with Barbieri scoring off a wild pitch and Michael Kelly coming home on an RBI groundout after hitting his first collegiate extra base hit with a double to right center.
Ave Maria wrapped up their scoring in the bottom of the sixth with Jason Volpe hitting a sacrifice fly to score Barbieri, getting his first RBI as a Gyrene. Volpe, a junior transfer from Ohlone College, only had two plate appearances before that. Michael Kelly almost wrapped up his great day with a home run right after that, but UFTL right fielder Justin Martinez made a leaping catch, snagging the ball over the wall for an out.
In the top of the seventh, Perry Carlson, a senior from Key Largo, Florida, made his first appearance on the mound for the Gyrenes since 2020, and despite giving up a grand slam that made the score look a lot closer than the actual game was, struck out two batters to end the game for the Gyrenes.
With the sweep, Ave Maria improves to 33-11 and 20-6 in nonconference games. The Gyrenes are now finished with their out of conference schedule for the regular season with just a conference series against the Webber Warriors left on the calendar. Webber was ranked tenth in the most recent NAIA polls which came out April 19, but lost their most recent weekend series to the Thomas Night hawks two games to one. That secured the number two seed for the Gyrenes in the Sun Tournament May 4-7. Game one is Friday with first pitch set for 2 p.m. and games two and three will be a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 12 p.m. All three games can be streamed on the Sun Digital Network either on the website, thesundigitalnetwork.com, or the app available on most cellular devices and smart TV's. Live stats and game recaps can also be found on avemariagyrenes.com.
