AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Baseball team opened their conference series against the New College of Florida Mighty Banyans in style Friday afternoon. The Gyrenes lit up the scoreboard 17 times as they beat New College 17-2 in a run ruled game. The two teams had intended to play a doubleheader Friday, but the second game was pushed to Saturday due to heavy rain in the Ave Maria area.
Friday started off tame enough with just three runs scored in the first three frames. Ave Maria opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with an RBI single from Anthony Fernandez to score Michael Kelly.
New College responded in the top of the second with a single run to tie the game, but Ryan Young and the Gyrene defense were able to leave the bases loaded and the game tied.
The Gyrenes broke the tie in the bottom of the third with a solo blast from Kyle Magdic. The homer traveled 367 feet to left field and was the designated hitter's third homer of the season.
The fourth inning is when the Gyrenes broke the game wide open. In what ended up being a 40-minute half inning, Ave Maria scored 11 runs off eight hits and one error from New College. Fifteen batters stepped up to the plate. Five hitters made up the eight hits for the Gyrenes with Kelton Klemke and Kelly both recording multiple hits in the frame. Two more batters drew walks and one batter was plunked as Ave Maria found all kinds of ways to get on base. Eleven runs in total are the most runs scored in an inning by the Gyrenes since they put up 11 against Lawrence Tech March 7, 2022. When the inning was finally over, the Gyrenes went back to the dugout up 13-1.
The Gyrenes added four more runs in the bottom of the fifth to get to their total of 17 runs.
New College scored their second run in the top of the seventh and had the bases loaded, but then mother nature took over the day. A huge rain storm started pouring at Bowie's Ballpark and lightning in the area forced the game to be delayed. After a short conversation, the game was called in mercy rule fashion in favor of the Gyrenes.
All nine batters in the starting lineup recorded a hit as Ave Maria totaled 18 throughout the game. Kelly and Fernandez tied for the most with four hits which is a season-high for both of them. Klemcke recorded a career-high three hits in the eight hole and drove in three runs. Kyle Magdic was the fourth Gyrene to record a multi-hit game.
On the mound, Ryan Young got the win in his fourth start, improving to 2-0. Young tossed the first 4.1 innings and struck out five while allowing one unearned run off three hits.
Jack McGlynn cleaned up the rest of the game and pitched 1.2 innings before the rain forced everyone inside. The junior struck out two batters during his time on the mound as AMU finished the game with seven.
With the win, Ave Maria improves to 6-6 overall and 3-2 in conference play.
Friday was intended to be a doubleheader, but the heavy rain pushed games two and three of the series to Saturday with the finale now on Sunday.
Saturday's doubleheader will start at 10 a.m. to avoid the same fate as Friday, and both games of the twin bill will be streamed live on the Urban Edge Network.
