February 19, 2021
Ortiz, Medina Homer, Pitching Staff Solid in Win Over Eastern Florida
The Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers used early long balls from Abi Ortiz and Ronny Medina and a quality effort on the mound from three different arms to get past Eastern Florida State 4-2 in the front end of the two teams' home and home Friday afternoon in Melbourne.
MELBOURNE, Fla.- The Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers used early long balls from Abi Ortiz and Ronny Medina and a quality effort on the mound from three different arms to get past Eastern Florida State 4-2 in the front end of the two teams' home and home Friday afternoon in Melbourne.
Eastern got on the board first in the bottom half of the 2nd inning, getting a leadoff home run to give the Titans an early 1-0 lead.
The Bucs answered right back, getting a leadoff home run of their own in the top of the 3rd as Ronny Medina quickly tied the game with a bomb to left on a 2-0 pitch to make it 1-1.
After Robert Wegielnik worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the 3rd on the mound for FSW, the Bucs offense got back to work.
Following a one out single from Yadiel Santana, Abimelec Ortiz blasted a two run shot to right to give the Bucs their first lead of the game at 3-1. Later in the frame a double from Kendry Noriega and a two out RBI single from Medina plated another for the Bucs to give them a 4-1 lead after 3 1/2 innings of play.
Wegielnik held the lead right there, keeping the Titans off the board in the 4th and 5th to send the game to the 6th with the Bucs still leading 4-1.
The Bucs had a chance to add on in the 6th, putting two runners on, but failed to come through with two outs to strand the pair and keep it a 4-1 contest.
Eastern got a run back in the bottom of the 6th, but Riley Skeen came in out of the Bucs bullpen to shut down any further threat to keep the Bucs in front 4-2.
That would do it for scoring in this one as Skeen tossed scoreless 7th and 8th frames and Antonio Knowles came in to lock down the save to give the Bucs a 4-2 win.
The Bucs had 10 hits in the victory, with Warnner Rincones leading the way atop the lineup with three knocks and Noriega and Medina each picking up a pair. Wegielnik went 5 1/3, allowing just two runs while striking out four to earn his first win of the season. Skeen was great for 2 2/3 innings, yielding just one hit while punching out four of his own. Knowles worked a 1-2-3 9th for his third save of the season.
The win is the fourth straight for FSW who improves to 12-6 on the year while Eastern Florida drops to 6-8 with the loss.
The same two teams will be back in action on Saturday at 1:00 PM at City of Palms Park in Downtown Fort Myers.