AVE MARIA, Fla. (February 13, 2021) – One day after dropping its first Sun Conference game of the season with a 6-1 loss against the Gyrenes, the Webber International University baseball team came back to win the series over Ave Maria University with a pair of victories on Saturday at Bowie's Ballpark. The Warriors won game one on Saturday 15-8 after recording 18 hits, and then in the series finale, Webber won 6-3 after a three-run top of the eighth inning.

In game one on Saturday, Angel Diaz hit a two-run home run to center field in the top of the first, and then in the top of the second, the Warriors put up eight runs.

Griffin Todd was 3-for-4 with three runs scored, two walks, two stolen bases and a double; Steven Lugo was 3-for-5 with three runs scored and a double; Diaz was 3-for-6 with his two-run homer; and Norberto Navarro was 3-for-7 with three RBI's and a run.

Bryce McDonald earned the win allowing seven hits, five total runs, four earned runs and two walks while striking out nine batters in 5.1 innings.  

Game two was much closer as Webber led 1-0 on an RBI-walk by Orlando Pena in the top of the first and then led 2-0 on a sacrifice fly to center field by Rougie Odor in the top of the second before solo home runs by the Gyrenes in the second and sixth innings tied it at 2-2.

That is where things got a little wild as Diaz led off the top of the seventh with a solo home run to right center. Then in the top of the eighth, Diaz homered again to center to score Lugo for his third long ball of the day.

Diaz was 3-for-5 with three RBI's and two runs scored in the finale, and was a combined 6-for-11 with five RBI's, three runs scored and three home runs on the day.

Austin Dreher (3-0) earned the win in the series finale with six innings pitched allowing four hits, two runs and no walks while striking out seven. Rey Rodriguez then finished off the final three innings allowing two hits, one run, zero earned runs, zero walks and four strikeouts.

With what was also its first two road wins of the season, Webber improved to back above. 500 overall on the season at 7-6 while also picking up its first two conference wins of the year at 2-1 while Ave Maria fell to 2-7 and 1-2.

Webber's Head Coach Collin Martin said, "We were a little disappointed in Friday's outcome, and hats off to their guys for pitching a great game. However, conference weekends are won on Saturdays, and we were happy to see our players respond and work from the first pitch to the last pitch today. We're going to need to parlay that into a good work week getting ready for another good TSC team coming into town next weekend."

Next up for Webber will be its first TSC series of the season at home as the Warriors host No. 15 nationally-ranked Keiser University at 6 p.m. on Friday, February 19, followed by the series doubleheader starting at 12 p.m. on Saturday, February 20. During Webber's 2021 season opener back on January 26, the Warriors lost 6-3 at home against the Seahawks.