AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Baseball team closed out their home season Saturday afternoon against the Florida Memorial Lions. The Gyrenes took an early lead, but too many free passes led to the Lions pouring on the runs as Florida Memorial took the series finale 18-4.
The Gyrenes opened the scoring with a run in the first two innings. After a Florida Memorial error moved Anthony Fernandez to third, Kyle Magdic brought him home with an infield single.
In the second inning, the Gyrenes pulled off a successful double steal with runners on the corners. Omari Swinton came home from third to put Ave Maria up 2-0.
The fourth inning is when the good times stopped in the series finale. Florida Memorial plated three runs to take the lead. After adding a run in the fifth, the Lions logged back-to-back frames with three runs to go up 10-2.
The eighth inning was the worst of the bunch as Florida Memorial brought home eight runs to secure the run-rule win. The Lions sent 13 batters to the plate and logged six hits and three walks to score their eight runs.
In the bottom half of the frame, Ave Maria showed a little life as they loaded the bases with nobody out. A grounder allowed one run to score but resulted in a double play to quickly put two outs on the board. Joe Manesiotis brought home the final run with an RBI single to left field that scored Fernandez. Another grounder ended the game in favor of the Lions.
As a pitching staff, the Gyrenes walked 14 batters, passing the previous high of 13 which was set a game earlier in the second game of a doubleheader on Friday.
At the plate, Magdic led the team with two hits.
After the game, the Gyrenes hosted Senior day as they said goodbye to the 10 seniors on the team who will graduate at the end of the season.
With the loss, Ave Maria falls to 12-19 overall and 9-15 in conference play. The Gyrenes also finish their home schedule with a record of 11-11. In the Sun Conference standings, Ave Maria remains in sixth place, a game ahead of Florida Memorial, and would be the last team to get into the Sun Conference tournament. In the final series of the regular season, Florida Memorial has to win two more games than the Gyrenes to pass them in the standings and claim the final spot in the tournament. New College still has a shot as well but would need to win three games more than Ave Maria to pass the Gyrenes.
In this crucial final weekend, Ave Maria will travel out to Miami Gardens to take on the No. 25 St. Thomas Bobcats. In the other two important series to watch, Florida Memorial will host RV Keiser and New College travels to No. 11 Southeastern.
Game one between the Gyrenes and Bobcats is set for Thursday, April 23, with first pitch at 6 p.m. The game will be streamed live on the Urban Edge Network.
