AVE MARIA, Fla. — It was a tale of two games for the Gyrenes who split their first home conference doubleheader of the season with the Florida Memorial Lions. FMU won game one 6-4 in 10 innings and then the Gyrenes responded with a dominant 11-0 win in a shortened seven inning game.
After being pushed back to Saturday due to heavy rain on Friday, game one started off really well for the Gyrenes. Davis Blair got the scoring started with an RBI double that brought home Tanner Kelly in the bottom of the first. In the next frame, the Gyrenes scored two runs with back-to-back RBI singles from the Kelly brothers.
However, after the second inning, the Gyrenes went cold at the plate. For the next seven innings, the Gyrenes only got three hits, and only once did they have a runner reach third base.
For most of the game, the cold streak didn't matter. Starter Luke Zmolik was more than the Lions could handle. In his longest start of the season, the junior transfer from Monroe, Washington, tossed seven innings, only allowed two runs, one of which was unearned, off three hits, walked three batters and struck out five. It was the first quality start of the season for Zmolik as he held the Lions at bay. FMU scored their runs in the third and in the fifth.
In the eighth, the Gyrenes made a call to the bullpen and pulled out Blake Albritton, who has been solid for the Gyrenes all year long, but today gave up the tying run off an RBI groundout.
Neither team found the plate in the ninth, so for the first time this season, the Gyrenes went to extra innings.
In the top of the tenth, the Lions jumped all over the Gyrenes and brought home three runs to take their first lead of the day. Florida Memorial loaded the bases with nobody out, then brought home all three runners with a wild pitch, fielder's choice, and sacrifice fly.
In the bottom of the tenth, the Gyrenes found their rhythm at the plate again to make the game interesting. Back-to-back singles led off the inning, and then both runners got into scoring position after a strikeout and groundout. Down to their final out, Cole Rasbury kept the inning alive with an RBI single, making it 6-4 and representing the tying run at first. Connor James was the next batter, but a contested call ended the game. Down 1-2 in the count, the Gyrenes believed James called time at the plate, but the pitch was called strike three anyway to end the game in favor of the Lions. The Gyrenes argued the call to end the game, but no amount of convincing was going to change the decision from the umpires.
Upset with how game one ended, the Gyrenes harnessed that anger and let the Lions have it on the scoreboard in game two.
The scoring started in the third inning with Franco Barbieri smacking an RBI single to left field to bring home Kyle Van Liere. Barbieri then stole second and third before finally being brought home on a Blair RBI single. David Leonardi finished off the scoring with a two-run blast over the right field wall. It was the ninth homer of the season for Leonardi, who is now just one behind Barbieri for the team lead.
In the fifth, Blair got two more RBI with a single up the middle bringing home Tanner Kelly and James and giving the Gyrenes a 6-0 lead. Blair tried to stretch the single to a double but was tagged out at second to end the inning.
Ave Maria scored their final five runs in the fifth inning. Luis Rodriguez-Gallo got the scoring started with an RBI single that brough home Leonardi and moved Rasbury to third. With runners at the corners, a walk loaded the bases for the Gyrenes with nobody out. A wild pitch on a dropped third strike brought home Rasbury to make it 8-0 and bring up Van Liere with two runners in scoring position. Van Liere, a senior transfer from Butler University who was making his first start for the Gyrenes in game two of the doubleheader, got his first career hit as a Gyrene with a three-run bomb to left field. Those were the final three runs of the game as the Gyrenes took an 11-0 lead.
On the mound, Kevin Figueredo was lights out. The senior from Miami pitched all seven innings of the shortened game earning his second complete game of his Ave Maria career. The Lions had trouble getting anything started against Figueredo. The seventh and final inning was the first time in the game Florida Memorial had multiple baserunners at the same time. In that seventh inning, the first three batters all reached safely to load the bases with no outs, threatening the Gyrene shutout. However, Ave Maria tightened up in the field and played excellent defense. Figueredo got the first out with a looking strikeout. Then, Barbieri made a diving catch in shallow left field for the second out, which held all the runners. Finally, Figueredo ended the game just in time before sunset with his eighth strikeout of the game, a season high for him.
Figueredo got the win and improved to 3-3 on the season.
As a team, it was the fourth shutout by Gyrene pitching this season. Figueredo has now been a part of three of the four, but this was the first one he did all by himself.
With the split, Ave Maria stays .500 on the year with an overall record of 12-12. In conference play the Gyrenes more to 2-8. With Warner getting swept in their first conference series by the Southeastern Fire, the Gyrenes are no longer in last place, now a game ahead of the Royals.
The Gyrenes finish out this conference series with a doubleheader Sunday, March 24. Ave Maria look to sweep the two games and win their first conference series. First pitch is scheduled for noon with game two set to start thirty minutes following the conclusion of game one. Both games can be streamed on the Sun Digital Network.
