February 6, 2026
Bucs Go 2-1 On Busy Day One in Dothan
The #2 Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers came out of a rare tripleheader 2-1 Friday in Dothan, Alabama, defeating Volunteer State 8-0 and Calhoun 8-2 while dropping a shocking 1-0 extra innings decision to Northwest-Shoals in the middle of their two victories.
DOTHAN, Ala.- The #2 Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers came out of a rare tripleheader 2-1 Friday in Dothan, Alabama, defeating Volunteer State 8-0 and Calhoun 8-2 while dropping a shocking 1-0 extra innings decision to Northwest-Shoals in the middle of their two victories.
The Bucs opened the tournament with a matchup against Volunteer State and couldn't have gotten off to much of a better start as the birthday girl Zoe Yzaguirre struck out the side in the top of the 1st and the offense gave her a pair of early runs on back to back RBI knocks from Noelani Livingstone and Megan Veilleux to put FSW in front 2-0 after one.
Yzaguirre struck out two more in the 2nd and Bente Zwanenburg homered on the third pitch of the bottom of the inning to pad the Bucs lead to 3-0.
The Bucs added to their lead in the 3rd as Lizzy Kwakernaak ripped a two out RBI double to make it 4-0 before stealing third and scoring on a Vol State error to go in front 5-0.
FSW put it away in the 4th, scoring three times to make it 8-0 and Giorgiana Woods came on out of the Bucs bullpen to work a 1-2-3 top of the 5th with a pair of strikeouts to close things out as FSW finished off an 8-0 run rule win in five.
Yzaguirre was outstanding, going 4 shutout innings and striking out 10 to earn the win and improve to 3-0 on the year. Livingstone went 2-2 and scored 3 runs to lead the offense while Veilleux was 2-3 with 3 RBIs.
The Bucs were right back at it a short time later in their second game of the day against Northwest-Shoals.
Fans of offense needed to look elsewhere early in this one as neither team threatened the scoreboard in the first three frames as the game quickly went to the 4th scoreless.
A Bucs error and a two out walk gave Northwest-Shoals a prime scoring chance in the 4th but FSW starter Lizzy Kwakernaak came up big with a strikeout to end the threat and keep it a 0-0 game midway through.
Kwakernaak put up another zero in the 5th but the FSW offense just couldn't get anything going, striking out twice in a 1-2-3 bottom of the 5th to keep things scoreless as the game sailed to the 6th.
The Bucs had a chance to walk it off in the 7th as they put a two out runner on, but a strikeout again doused the flames and the Bucs and Patriots went to extras with nothing but goose eggs on the scoreboard.
With a runner starting on second with the International tiebreaker, Shoals quickly bunted their runner over to third and then came through with a single to score her to break the ice and take the games first lead at 1-0.
The Bucs attempted to do the same in the bottom of the frame and successfully moved the runner to third with one out, but a tapper back to the pitcher kept the tying run 60 feet away and another groundout on the infield brought the game to an end with the Patriots holding on for a shocking 1-0 extra innings win over the Bucs.
The Bucs couldn't get anything going offensively, finishing with just four total hits, two coming from Kwakernaak who also went the distance in the circle, allowing just three hits and striking out 10 despite getting collared with the tough luck loss to fall to 0-1 on the year.
In their final game of the day, the Calhoun Warhawks were on the wrong side of an angry Bucs squad coming off of their first loss of the season.
FSW wasted little time taking out their frustration on the 'Hawks, scoring four times in the bottom of the 1st inning on an RBI double from Woods and back to back two out RBI singles from Mikan Nishiya and Zwanenburg to give the Bucs a 4-0 lead after one.
The Bucs were back at it in the 2nd as Livingstone and Hailey Turner knocked in runs to make it 6-0 FSW at the end of two.
Calhoun got their two runs in the 3rd to cut the Bucs lead to 6-2, but Livingstone used her combination of power and speed to get one back for the Bucs in the 4th as she cracked a leadoff inside the park home run to pad the FSW lead back to five at 7-2 after four.
Woods came in out of the FSW bullpen and silenced the Warhawks through the middle innings and the Bucs added some insurance in the 6th on an RBI double from Stephanie Basso to make it 8-2.
Woods did the rest, putting up her fourth straight zero in the 7th to close things out as the Bucs went on to win it 8-2 to close out their busy day on a high note.
The Bucs banged out 12 hits in the win with nine different players collecting at least one. Livingstone went 2-2 with a pair of runs scored and two RBIs while Woods did it all, going 2-2 with an RBI while also earning the win in the circle with four scoreless innings of work with five strikeouts to improve to 2-0 on the year.
The Bucs move to 6-1 on the year with the results and will be back in action one final time on Saturday in the game of the weekend as they take on #11 Chipola in an FCSAA Championship Game rematch from last season at 11:00 AM.