LECANTO, Fla. — The Ave Maria Men's Golf team hit the links for the second week in a row as they played in the Battle at Black Diamond. The Gyrenes had a much better showing than their season-opening tournament the week before, placing fifth among 11 teams and shooting a collective +29 across the three rounds.

In the morning round on Monday, the Gyrenes shot a combined 7-over-par. Alfonso Baro Rosas led the team at 3-under with a 69. It is the lowest score the senior has ever shot with Gyrenes. Baro Rosas carded four birdies to just one bogey in the opening round to hit the low score.

Alex Veneziano was second on the team, coming in at 2-over-par. Eric Cherubini was next on the team with a +3 and Neal Wheeler rounded out the group with a +5. Veneziano and Cherubini each logged two birdies during the round.

Sitting at 7-over-par, the Gyrenes were in second place after the first round and Baro Rosas was first on the leaderboard.

However, the second round was not as kind to the Gyrenes. Despite turning in a similar performance as the first round with a collective +10, Ave Maria was the eighth best team in the second round and fell from second place to fourth place.

Cherubini was the top golfer in the second round for Ave Maria, coming in at 1-over-par. The Ohioan logged five birdies throughout the round, the most in a single round for any Gyrene at the tournament. Wheeler was second on the team with a +2, followed by Veneziano at +3. Daniel Nycum got on the card for the first time this season and rounded out the group with a +4. Wheeler had three birdies, Veneziano had four and Nycum had one.

Baro Rosas was the fifth finisher for the Gyrenes, carding a +7. It dropped him from first to 17^th on the leaderboard.

At the end of the first day, Ave Maria was in fourth place at a combined +17.

The third round was the toughest for the Gyrenes, combining for 12-over-par and dropping another spot on the team leaderboard. Veneziano led the team with an even 72 on Tuesday. He carded two birdies to two bogeys to finish the round even. Nycum was second on the team at 2-over-par, followed by Cherubini at +3 and Baro Rosas at +7. Nycum led the team with four birdies, followed by Cherubini and Baro Rosas with two.

The +12 brought Ave Maria's final score to 29-over-par, placing them fifth out of 11 teams. They were five strokes behind the fourth place New College of Florida B team and six strokes ahead of the sixth place Florida College Falcons.

Veneziano was the highest finisher for the Gyrenes, tying for 11^th place at 5-over-par. Cherubini was next as he tied for 20^th place, followed by Baro Rosas in 26^th place, Nycum tied for 34^th place and Wheeler in 39^th place.