AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Gyrenes lost game one of their final series of the regular season, falling to the Webber Warriors 9-0. It was the first time the Gyrenes have been shut out in two seasons, with their last shutout loss coming against Keiser February 6, 2021.
Webber jumped on the Gyrenes early and often, scoring one run in the first, three in third and three in the fifth. That chased starter Cameron Horner off the mound after just five innings of work. The seven runs allowed ties the most the sophomore has allowed in a game this season.
The Warriors got their final two runs in the sixth inning, taking a 9-0 lead. After Kevin Figueredo got into a little trouble in the fifth, Kelton Little came out of the bullpen and cleaned things up for the Gyrenes. The junior from Largo, Florida, entered the game with the bases loaded and only one out. He got a sacrifice fly for the second out of the inning, which brought home the final run for the Warriors, and then got a groundout to end the inning.
From there, Little was lights out, pitching the final three innings and only allowing two hits. Little pitched to contact, allowing his defense to get easy outs, but did manage to strike out two batters in his 3.2 innings of work.
At the plate, the Gyrenes had an uncharacteristically slow day. Only five hits for the Gyrenes, which is on the low end from them, and no stolen bases. Webber pitcher, Blayne Huter, picked off two batters stopping any momentum the Gyrenes tried to build. Huter also only gave up one walk, which was issued to Cole Rasbury in the seventh inning.
The slow day unfortunately brought an end to one of the many highlights of the 2023 season, Tanner Kelly's on-base streak. The junior from Libertyville, Illinois, put on a show this year, reaching base safely via either a hit, walk, or hit by pitch in the first 43 games of the season, almost doubling the previous school record of 22 games. A 0-for-4 day ended the streak, officially sending it into the history books. It was the longest in the Sun Conference and one of the, if not the, longest streak in the NAIA this season. Combined with the 15 game on-base streak he ended the 2022 season on, it was the first time after 58 games and since April 1, 2022, that Kelly had not gotten on base.
Jose Gonzalez also passed the previous on-base streak, reaching safely for 25 straight games from March 4 through April 25, and, also like Kelly, saw that streak end today going 0-for-4 as well. The longest current on-base streak now for the Gyrenes is an 18-game streak for Tynan Shahidi, which is tied for 16th longest in school history.
The one Gyrene who did have a good day at the plate was Axel Melendez, going 2-for-3. It was the catcher's fifth multi-hit game of the season.
With the loss, the Gyrenes fall to 33-12 on the year and 13-6 in conference play.
Ave Maria and Webber will close out the series and the regular season Saturday, April 28, with a doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled for noon with the second game set to start 30 minutes following the conclusion of the first. Both games can be streamed on the Sun Digital Network either on the website or on the app available on most cellular devices and smart TVs. Live stats and game recaps can also be found on avemariagyrenes.com.
