March 21, 2022
FSW Wins 10th Straight
The #16 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers scored eight unanswered runs in the middle innings to come from behind and defeat the State College of Florida Manatees 11-6 Monday afternoon at City of Palms Park in Downtown Fort Myers. The win is the 10th straight for FSW and clinches their third consecutive Suncoast Conference series victory.
FORT MYERS, Fla.- The #16 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers scored eight unanswered runs in the middle innings to come from behind and defeat the State College of Florida Manatees 11-6 Monday afternoon at City of Palms Park in Downtown Fort Myers. The win is the 10th straight for FSW and clinches their third consecutive Suncoast Conference series victory.
The Manatees were the first to crack the scoreboard on Monday as they used a leadoff double and a bloop single behind it to score the game's first run and take a 1-0 lead in the 2nd.
After two quick outs in the FSW 3rd, Kendry Noriega was hit by a pitch on the foot and Satchell Norman walked to put two on with two out for the Bucs. That's when Hunter Fitz-Gerald hit a ground ball with eyes back up the middle, driving in Noriega from second and tying the game at 1.
SCF retook the lead with a run in the top of the 4th but the Bucs responded with a run in the 5th on a two out RBI triple from Paul Winland to knot the score back up at 2 after five.
The scoring picked up from there as the Manatees put up the game's first crooked number in the 6th with three runs, two coming on a dropped pop up on the infield by FSW to take a 5-2 lead.
The Bucs answered in the bottom of the frame, with seven straight hitters reaching base with two outs, the big blows coming on back to back RBI doubles from Norman and Fitz-Gerald to give FSW their first lead of the game at 7-5.
Ronaldo Fernandez worked a quick 1-2-3 inning for the Bucs in the 7th and the FSW offense was back at it in the bottom half of the inning as Kalvin Alexander drove a run home with a single down the left field line and the Bucs added two more later in the frame on a bases loaded walk to Norman and a wild pitch to score Alexander to make it 10-5.
The Manatees cut the lead to 10-6 in the 8th after a pair of walks and an FSW error led to a run, but Ben Petschke got a big strikeout to strand a pair at inning's end to keep the Bucs in front by four.
The Bucs couldn't add any insurance in the bottom of the 8th but they didn't need it as Petschke finished the Manatees off in the 9th to secure the 10-6 win for the Purple and Aqua.
SCF actually outhit FSW in the contest, but the Bucs took advantage of eight walks and three hit batters in the victory. Norman was on base three times and drove home three runs for FSW in the win while Fitz-Gerald and Alexander each had two hits and two RBIs. Fernandez earned his second win of the season out of the Buccaneers bullpen, going 1 1/3 innings, allowing two hits and one run before giving way to Petschke who tossed two scoreless to finish things off.
The win is the 10th straight for FSW who improves to 22-11 overall and 9-2 in Suncoast Conference play on the season with the victory. SCF falls to 17-16 overall and 4-6 in league play.
The Bucs and Manatees will tangle one more time on Wednesday in Bradenton to wrap up the series with first pitch set for 6 PM.