JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Ave Maria Softball team played their first doubleheader of the season on Friday and split the two games with the Trinity College of Jacksonville Eagles. Runs were aplenty for both teams with a whopping 39 combined runs across both games. Trinity won the first game 10-9 while the Gyrenes took the second 17-3 in five innings.
The opening game started off pretty quietly as Ave Maria took a 2-0 lead through the first three and half innings. Karsyn Moore got the scoring started with an RBI single in the first inning to bring home Mary McIntire. In the fourth inning, Kate McIntyre put the Gyrenes on the board with a solo home run, the first dinger of the season for AMU. The homer was also the first of McIntyre's career.
In the circle, Lindsey Watson started the first game of her career and tossed a solid three innings. Watson only faced two batters over the minimum in the first three innings, with both of those being walks scattered across the second and third innings.
However, the bottom of the fourth is when the bats woke up. TCJ exploded for six runs off three hits and three Gyrene errors.
The lead did not last long though as Ave Maria responded with four runs of their own in the top of the fifth to tie the game. Ave Maria got RBI singles from Liz Negron, Genevieve Peterson and Hailee Howe, knotting the score up at six.
In the top of the sixth inning, Ashley Lykins went deep for the first homer of her career as well that put the Gyrenes on top 7-6.
That lead was not safe either as Trinity College smacked an RBI double to tie the game at seven.
Heading into the final frame, both teams took their best shots at each other. In the top half of the frame, Ave Maria got two more homers, another from McIntyre and one from Howe. It is just the sixth time in program history a Gyrene has smashed two home runs in one game and the first time since Marrisa Michi hit two against Mobile in 2021. Four home runs in a game as a team also ties the program record and is the first time since 2017 the Gyrenes have accomplished the feat.
Unfortunately, the record tying performances were not enough as the Eagles scrapped together three runs, winning the game in walk-off fashion.
Feeling a bit slighted after the first game, the Gyrenes unloaded on the Eagles in the second game, winning via the mercy rule in five innings by a score of 17-3. Ave Maria put up a crooked number in each of the five innings.
Unlike the first game, the Gyrenes did not utilize the long ball in the second and stayed inside the park for all five innings. Rather, the damage was done by 14 hits and five errors from the Eagles.
The Gyrenes scored three in the first of two errors and an RBI walk.
The second inning saw four runs from the Gyrenes with a two-RBI triple from Lykins, an RBI single from Wing, who later scored on a passed ball.
Ave Maria added three more runs in the third inning, getting runs off two RBI ground outs and another error.
The fourth inning was by far the best inning for the Gyrenes as they scored five runs off five hits. Negron got the scoring started with an RBI single, followed by a two-RBI double from Watson, an RBI groundout from Haleigh Campbell and an RBI single from Lykins.
Ave Maria tacked on their final two runs in the fifth inning with an RBI double from Howe and an RBI single from Campbell.
Lykins led the team in hits in the second game with three hits. Two other Gyrenes notched multiple hits as Peterson and Watson each logged two. Lykins also led the team with four RBI, followed by Watson, Howe and Campbell at two.
In the circle, Kaedyn Sutton got her second win of the season, tossing three innings and striking out six batters. Noelani Sokolik cleaned up the last two innings and held the Eagles off the board in both frames while striking out three.
With the split, Ave Maria's record moves to 2-1.
The Gyrenes will take a week off before returning back to the field as they travel to West Palm Beach to take on the Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish in a doubleheader. The first game is set to start at noon, and the game will be streamed live on the Sunshine State Conference Digital Network.
