FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Ave Maria Baseball team dropped their opening game in the Sun Conference Tournament to the Keiser Seahawks Thursday evening. It was a close back and forth game for the first seven innings, but then Seahawks scored 11 runs in the final two frames to run away with the game.

The game stayed scoreless for the first three innings, the longest a game between Ave Maria and Keiser has stayed tied at zero this season.

The Seahawks opened the scoring in the top of the fourth inning bringing home runs off a sacrifice fly and an RBI double.

Those were the only two runs Keiser would get on starter Owen Johnson. The junior transfer from Concordia had another great start on the mound, tossing six innings with only two runs allowed off four hits and two walks while striking out five. It was his third quality start of the season.

At the plate, the Gyrenes tied the game in the bottom of the fifth. Kyle Van Leire brought in the first run with an RBI single to left field that scored Kyle Magdic. A couple of at bats later, Gyrene veteran Tanner Kelly made history by recording his 252^nd hit in the green and tanzanite. He now has the most career hits in program history, passing Gyrene Hall of Famer Alex Sanchez, who set the record back in 2013. More importantly to the game, it brought home Jimmy Coffey to knot up the score at two.

In the bottom of the sixth, Ave Maria took their lone lead of the night with an RBI single from Magdic that brought home Harrison Rossi to make the score 3-2. Rossi was courtesy running for catcher Sebastian Cabeza who got on via a Keiser error.

Keiser took a slight lead in the seventh inning, bringing home two runs to go up 4-3.

Ave Maria tied it in the bottom half of the frame on a busy play. With runners on the corners and a full count to Kelly, the Gyrenes started a double steal. Kelly struck out swinging for out number one and then Seahawk catcher Symonds fired the ball down to second to caught Jesus Gonzalez stealing. The tag was applied in time for out number two, but the play at the top of the infield allowed Van Leire to score from third and tie the game.

The teams entered the eighth inning knotted at four, but it didn't stay that way for long. The Seahawks jumped on the Gyrene bullpen, scoring four runs in the eighth and seven runs in the ninth. The Gyrenes got a run back thanks to another error from the Seahawks, but the deficit was too much to overcome.

Davis Blair gave up the four runs in the eighth innings and got his first loss of the season, bringing his record to 1-1. In his 12 appearances on the mound this season, he has only allowed runs in three outings, but two of those are now to Keiser.

At the plate, Gonzalez and Magdic led the team with three hits, both tying their season highs. For Gonzalez, it is his 20^th multi-hit game of the season, which is the most on the team. It was the third multi-hit game for Magdic. Cabeza also had a multi-hit game with two.

With the loss, Ave Maria falls to 27-24 on the season and is on the brink of elimination in the tournament.

The Gyrenes will now take on the top seeded Southeastern Fire. The Gyrenes went 3-1 against the Fire in the regular season at Bowie's Ballpark. If Ave Maria wins on Friday, they will advance to the third day and cause the bracket to rearrange since five teams would remain in the tournament. The last time this happened in the Sun Conference was 2017. If the Gyrenes lose to the Fire, they are knocked out of the tournament.

First pitch is set for 2:30 p.m. at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, Florida, and the game will be streamed live on the Sun Digital Network.