LAKE WALES, Fla. — The Ave Maria Baseball team got a sneak peek at Warner Saturday ahead of their conference series against the Royals the following weekend. The Gyrenes played well against the Royals to win 6-2.
Ave Maria opened the scoring in the first inning with a couple quick runs. The first three batters in the order all got aboard to bring up Caleb Metzen. The junior flied out a ball to left that was deep enough to bring home a run on a sacrifice fly. After a hit by pitch loaded the bases again, the Gyrenes traded an out for another run with an RBI groundout from Michael Kelly.
Warner got a run back in the bottom of the fourth, but that was as close as the Royals would get.
In the fifth, Jordan Crawford pushed the lead back to two runs with an RBI single that brought home Jesus Gonzalez.
Gonzalez brought the final three runs in for the Gyrenes in the seventh and ninth innings. In the seventh, the junior brought home Jimmy Coffey on the second sacrifice fly of the game for Ave Maria. In the ninth, he smacked a single to centerfield scoring Harrison Rossi and Coffey for the final two runs of the game for the Gyrenes.
It was a great two games for Gonzalez on Friday and Saturday, going a combined 6-for-9 on the weekend with four runs scored and five RBI. Three of his six hits were for extra bases with two doubles and a home run.
On the mound, Cam Horner got his second win of the season, tossing five innings and allowing one unearned run off five hits and two walks while striking out four batters. Brandon Willoughby then tossed two scoreless innings and got three strikeouts in his third appearance of the season.
Ryan Young was next out of the bullpen and threw five strikeouts, accounting for all of his outs in his 1.2 innings pitched. However, Warner did load the bases in the ninth inning down 6-1, putting the tying run on the on-deck circle.
The Gyrenes went to the bullpen one more time and pulled out Matt Barragy. An early wild pitch brought home one run for the Royals, but Barragy got a fly out to end the game, getting his first save of the season. It is the fifth save of his career, tying him for the sixth-most in program history with Ray Messner (2013-15).
With the win, Ave Maria improves to 5-8 on the year.
The Gyrenes begin conference play in their next game against the same Warner team in Lake Wales. It is a four-game set with a doubleheader on Friday, February 21, and a doubleheader on Saturday, February 22. It is the only conference series among Sun teams that weekend. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. on Friday with game two set to start approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one. The game will be streamed live on the Sun Digital Network.
