AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Gyrenes split a doubleheader with the Warner Royals Thursday afternoon to open their final conference series of the regular season. Ave Maria won the early game 12-2, mercy ruling the Royals in seven innings, and dropped game two 7-1.
The Gyrenes dominated game one, scoring all 12 of their runs in the first four innings. The first three were scored in the opening frame. Tanner Kelly popped a ball up in the infield, but the Warner shortstop lost in the sun, allowing the ball to drop and Barbieri to score. Luis Rodriguez-Gallo and Davis Blair followed that up with RBI singles to make the score 3-0.
In the third inning, the Gyrenes scored the bulk of their runs, having six players cross home plate. David Leonardi got the rally started with an RBI double to left field bringing home Cole Rasbury, who was courtesy running for the catcher Rodrigeuz-Gallo. Blair then went deep over the left field wall for his fourth homer of the season, bringing Leonardi home with him and putting the Gyrenes up 6-0.
The Gyrenes still had two outs to play with in the third and loaded the bases up with two walks and a single around an out. Kelly stepped up to the plate and flied a ball to center field that could have ended the inning but bounced off the glove of the center fielder and rolled to the wall. All three runners came into score and the Gyrenes took a commanding 9-0 lead following the error.
Ave Maria scored their final three runs in the fourth to take a 12-0 lead. Harrison Rossi hit a two-RBI single to left field and Jimmy Coffey brought home the final run with a bloop single to center.
On the mound, starter Kevin Figueredo cruised through five innings. He gave up a lone run in the fifth inning off three hits and struck out four. Figueredo did walk a career-high six batters but was able to pitch himself out of those jams. The best inning for senior southpaw was the fourth inning when he struck out the side.
Kelton Little tossed the final two innings for the Gyrenes and secured the mercy-rule win. A run did come into score for the Royals in the top of the seventh to bring the lead down to 10, the minimum for the mercy rule, and two more batters got on safely threatening to extend the game. Little showed little panic though, got a strikeout and then foul out to end the game for the Gyrenes.
Game two was not as favorable for the Gyrenes, despite starting off really well. Ave Maria struck first with Michael Kelly singling to left field to bring home Tanner Kelly.
On the mound, Cam Horner struck out six of the first seven batters, with the only blemish being a walk.
However, the Gyrenes went cold at the plate after the opening run while the Royals started to find their groove.
Warner tied the game in the fourth on a wild pitch from Horner with the bases loaded. In the fifth, the Royals took the lead with a two-RBI single. In the seventh inning, they put the game out of reach with four runs, capping the rally with a two-run homer to make it 7-1.
With the split, Ave Maria's record moves to 19-24 and 6-16 in conference play. Warner's win in game two was their ninth conference win of the season, clinching at least the fifth seed in the conference tournament. So, for the Gyrenes, it is either the sixth seed or missing tournament heading into Friday, the final day of the regular season.
Ave Maria got some help from Miami Gardens as St. Thomas beat Florida Memorial 11-2 in the series opener. That brings the magic number for the Gyrenes down to two. If Ave Maria sweeps Warner in the doubleheader tomorrow, the Gyrenes are in. If they drop one, they will need Florida Memorial to lose a second game to the Bobcats. If they drop both, they will need two losses from the Lions.
Friday's regular season finale doubleheader between the Gyrenes and the Royals is set to start at noon and can be streamed live on the Sun Digital Network.
