BRADENTON, Fla. — The Ave Maria Baseball team began their second conference series Friday, splitting a doubleheader with New College of Florida Mighty Banyans. The Gyrenes won game one 9-6 while dropping game two 6-5.
Game one had a lot of early scoring between the two teams. New College opened the scoring with three runs in the bottom of the first. The Gyrenes responded with two of their own in the top of the second off an RBI single from Michael Ciscar and a reached on an error from Jimmy Coffey. New College extended their lead back to two in the bottom of the second.
In the top of the third, Ave Maria tied it at four with an RBI single from Jordan Crawford and an RBI sacrifice fly from Davis Blair.
The Mighty Banyans took their last lead of the game in the bottom of the third, getting back up to a two-run advantage at 6-4.
Ave Maria got one run back in the top of the fourth with an RBI single from Tanner Kelly. They finally took the lead in the top of the fifth with an RBI triple from Ciscar and an RBI single from Coffey. For Ciscar, it was his first multi-hit and multi-RBI game of his Ave Maria career.
After 13 combined runs between the two teams in the first five innings, things finally settled down at the plate. Owen Johnson settled things down on the mound for the Gyrenes, tossing five innings between the third and seventh frames, only allowing two runs off two hits and striking out five batters. Johnson got the winning, bumping his record to 2-1.
Brandon Willoughby was next out of the bullpen for the Gyrenes and ran into a little trouble in the eighth inning with three walks loading the bases. Blair transitioned from the DH to the pitcher and got a strikeout and a flyout to end the frame. He got a second strikeout in the ninth inning to secure his third save of the year.
Ave Maria added two more runs in the top of the ninth for good measure with another RBI from Crawford and one from Michael Kelly.
The second game had a lower score than the first game but had some louder hits.
Just like in the early game, New College opened the scoring, bringing home a run in the first and the third to take a 2-0 lead.
Ave Maria briefly took the lead in the fourth inning. A passed ball got the scoring started for the Gyrenes, bringing home Dakota Jones. Then, with a runner on, Michael Kelly blasted a two-run homer, bringing home Crawford with him. It was the fourth home run of the season for Michael Kelly, tying him with his brother for the second-most on the team.
The narrow one-run lead did not last long, however, as the Mighty Banyans brought home three runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 5-3 lead.
In the top of the fifth, Jordan Crawford went deep for the second two-run homer of the game, bringing home himself and Jones. It was the third home run of the season for Crawford and the first since February 21 against Warner.
Just like the first game again, the game went quiet after the fifth. Unfortunately, this one did not go the Gyrenes way as New College walked it off with a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. It is the first time the Gyrenes have been walked off this season.
Coffey got a hit in both games, bringing his hit streak up to 16 games, the third-longest streak in program history. He passed Jose Gonzalez, who had a 15-game streak in 2022, in game two of the doubleheader.
With the split, Ave Maria remains a game above .500 at 13-12 overall and even in conference play at 3-3.
The series wraps up Saturday, March 15, with another doubleheader against the Mighty Banyans. First pitches are set for noon and 3 p.m. and both games will be streamed live on the Sun Digital Network.
