MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — After Saturday, the Ave Maria Baseball team is 8-for-8 on doubleheader splits making them 8-8 in conference play. The Gyrenes dropped the first game to the Florida Memorial Lions 4-2 but won the second game 4-3 to secure the doubleheader split and the series split.
Similarly to Friday, both games were last at-bat wins for the victors, with FMU bringing home the winning run in the bottom of the sixth in a seven-inning ballgame and AMU scoring the winning run in the top of the ninth in the second game. Differently from Friday, especially the second game, both games on Saturday were low scoring.
Ave Maria opened the scoring early in the first game, bringing home a run in the first inning. Jesus Gonzalez started the game off with a triple to right field, his first triple of the year. In the next at-bat, a wild pitch brought him home to put the Gyrenes up 1-0.
On the mound, Cam Horner had a great three innings to start. He faced just two batters over the minimum with an error and a hit and struck out five batters. Horner got into a little trouble in the fourth inning, with a hit by pitch and single putting runners on the corners. He got back-to-back strikeouts to put two away, but a wild pitch brought home a run to tie the game at one. Horner then got his eighth strikeout of the game to end the inning.
The Gyrenes got the run back in the fifth inning. Kyle Van Liere led the frame off with a double, hit third of the season. A groundout moved him to third and yet another wild pitch brought him home to put AMU up 2-1.
FMU took the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth inning. A double, wild pitch, and home run brought in the three runs that put them up 4-2. Of the six runs between the two teams, four of them were brought home on wild pitches. That is the most in a game this season for Ave Maria.
All four runs were charged to Horner, who finished the game with 5.2 innings pitched, four runs off four hits, one walk and four wild pitches. Horner did strike out a career-high 12 batters, with the defense only needing to make five outs behind him in his time on the mound.
Ave Maria was held off the board in the seventh inning to end the game.
The second game was a complete role reversal of the first game, with FMU taking an early lead, Ave Maria tying the game, FMU retaking the lead and then the Gyrenes scoring the winning run in their last frame at the plate.
Florida Memorial opened the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the first inning.
After the shaky opening frame with two runs scoring off three hits, starter Kevin Figueredo settled down and only allowed two more hits in his next five innings of work.
The Gyrenes tied the game in the top of the fifth. Dakota Jones got the inning started with a double to right field. Michael Ciscar brought him home with an extra base hit of his own, a triple to right field. It was his second triple of the season. The Gyrenes brought home a courtesy runner in Harrison Rossi for the catcher, and he was brought home on the next at-bat with a bunt single from Jimmy Coffey.
FMU immediately regained the lead in the bottom half of the frame with an RBI single.
In the top of the seventh, the Gyrenes brought in Ryan Young out of the bullpen, and he shut down the Lions. In his three innings of work, Young faced just one batter over the minimum, walking a batter in the bottom of the ninth. Outside of that, nobody reached first on Young.
Ave Maria tied the game in the top of the eighth inning with a two-out RBI double from Gonzalez to bring home Van Liere.
In the top of the ninth, the Gyrenes loaded the bases and brought home the winning run on an RBI groundout from Coffey to score Davis Blair.
In the bottom of the ninth, Florida Memorial got their lone baserunner against Young, but his third strikeout of the game secured the win and split for the Gyrenes. Young got the win, improving his record to 1-1.
All four games of the weekend series were last at-bat wins, bringing AMU's record to 4-5 this season in games decided in a team's final trip to the plate.
The split makes Ave Maria's record 18-17 overall and 8-8 in conference play. The Gyrenes are in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Sun Conference standings. They are tied with New College of Florida and Keiser, who are both 6-6. There is a three-way tie for first in the conference as well, with Southeastern, Webber and St. Thomas all at 7-5.
Ave Maria stays on the road as they continue their final road stand of the season. The schedule picks up Tuesday, April 1, with a midweek game against NCAA Division II opponent Eckerd. It is the first time since 2019 the Gyrenes will play the Tritons. After the midweek game against Eckerd, the Gyrenes have a road series at Keiser before coming home for their final 10 games of the season.
First pitch against the Tritons is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be streamed live on the Sunshine State Conference Digital Network.
