AUBURNDALE, Fla. — The Ave Maria Baseball team lost their first game of the East/West Challenge Thursday afternoon, falling to the Lewis-Clark State Warriors 13-2. The Gyrenes led the number seven team in the country for a few innings, but a couple of errors led to a big inning for the Warriors that created an insurmountable deficit.

Lewis-Clark State opened the scoring in the top of the first with one run, but the Gyrenes immediately responded in the bottom half of the frame. With two runners on and nobody out, Tanner Kelly reached on a throwing error from the LC third basemen. The throwing error allowed Kyle Van Liere to round third and score, evening the game at one.

Jordan Crawford kept the scoring going on the next at bat with an RBI single to right field that brought home Davis Blair and put AMU up 2-1.

The Gyrenes stayed on top for a couple of innings thanks to some good pitching from starter Hunter Cashero. In his second start of the season, the Kansas transfer only allowed one hit in the second and third innings while striking out two batters.

The top of the fourth is when it fell apart for the Gyrenes. Back-to-back errors from the defense to start the inning put two runners on instead of two outs on the board. A single in the next at bat tied the game at two. Lewis-Clark State then took the lead a few batters later with a 2-RBI single making the score 4-2. The inning wasn't over as a three-run home run put LC up 7-2. All six runs scored in the inning were unearned because of the errors.

Ave Maria went cold at the plate and struggled to get runners on after Lewis-Clark State took the lead.

The Warriors added two more runs in the seventh inning and four more in the ninth to get up to their total of 13.

With the loss, the Gyrenes fall to 3-2 on the year.

Ave Maria is back in action Friday, January 31, as they continue the East/West Challenge. The Gyrenes have two games on day three of the annual challenge, taking on #2 Hope International first at 2 p.m. and then playing #24 British Columbia at 6 p.m. Friday will be the first ever time playing British Columbia for Ave Maria and the second ever time against Hope International. The Gyrenes played HIU last season in the East/West Challenge as well in Arizona. Hope International went on to win the National Championship in 2024.

The East currently leads the west four games to two after two days.