March 1, 2021
Furious Finish Pushes #20 Past Polk in Suncoast Opener
The freshly ranked #20 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers found themselves in trouble late in their 2021 Suncoast Conference opener against Polk State Monday night in Winter Haven, trailing 5-3 as they went to the 8th inning against the Eagles bullpen. With their backs to the wall, the defending conference champs fired back, putting up seven runs in the 8th and another in the 9th to storm back for an 11-5 win to give them their ninth win in the past ten contests.
WINTER HAVEN, Fla.- The freshly ranked #20 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers found themselves in trouble late in their 2021 Suncoast Conference opener against Polk State Monday night in Winter Haven, trailing 5-3 as they went to the 8th inning against the Eagles bullpen. With their backs to the wall, the defending conference champs fired back, putting up seven runs in the 8th and another in the 9th to storm back for an 11-5 win to give them their ninth win in the past ten contests.
Both teams had traffic early on with FSW and Polk each putting a runner in scoring position each of their first two at bats, but neither team could come up with a big hit as the game remained scoreless through two innings of action.
The Bucs cracked the scoreboard first in the 3rd as they loaded the bases on a single and two walks before drawing two more walks to force home runs and give them a 2-0 lead.
FSW looked like they were out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom half of the 3rd, but a dropped third strike that would have ended the inning allowed the Eagles to get on the board and cut the Bucs lead in half at 2-1.
The Bucs defense did them in again in the 4th as an error and a failed pickoff attempt allowed Polk to tie the game and then take their first lead of the night at 3-2 after four.
Polk added to their lead in the 6th, using back to back doubles to push a run across and make it 4-2.
FSW got a run back in the top half of the 7th when Warnner Rincones reached on an Eagle error and scored on an RBI single from Carter Cunningham to get the Bucs back to within one at 4-3 at stretch time.
The Bucs gifted the run back to Polk in the bottom of the 7th, walking three, including one with the bases loaded to push the Eagle lead back to two at 5-3.
Down to their final six outs of the night, the Bucs offense came alive in the 8th. They loaded the bases with nobody out on a single and a pair of hard earned walks before Christian Lucio scalded a triple to the left center field gap to clear the bases and put the Bucs on top 6-5. Axel Melendez came in to pinch hit and wasted little time getting his job done, driving home Lucio with an RBI single to make it a 7-5 game. The Bucs weren't done yet. After reloading the bases, still with nobody out, Matthew Corpas flared a single to right to drive home another and make it 8-5. Yadiel Santana brought another Buc plateward with an RBI single and Kendry Noriega made it a seven run inning for the Bucs with an RBI groundout to make it 10-5.
Brendan Koester worked a quick 1-2-3 frame after the big inning for the Bucs, shutting down any thought of a comeback for the Eagles and FSW added another run for good measure in the 9th to finish off an 11-5 victory.
The Bucs banged out 13 hits in the win, led by Rincones at the top of the lineup who had four and also added to his national stolen base lead with two swipes. Santana was 2-4 with two RBIs in the middle of the order while Corpas and Melendez each had two hits as well. Koester earned the win out of the FSW bullpen, going 2 1/3 shutout frames to close it out, allowing just two hits while striking out two to improve to 3-0 on the year. Enrique Cotto gave the Bucs 5 1/3 solid innings to start the game, striking out 10 in a no decision.
#20 FSW improves to 17-7 on the year with the victory while Polk State falls to 14-10.
The same two teams will continue their three game series Wednesday in Fort Myers in a 2 PM first pitch, before closing out the opening series of conference play Friday back in Winter Haven.