Cameran Brantley (Photo by Roy Allen)
Posted: Feb 01, 2020
FORT MYERS, Fla.- The #20 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers will look back on missed chances as the cause for their 7-1 loss to #5 Chipola Saturday night at City of Palms Park in Downtown Fort Myers. The Bucs left nine runners on, failing to take advantage of eight free passes by Indian pitching to fall to 1-2 on the year.
Chipola got the scoring going right away, plating a 1st inning run on a solo shot to left field to take an early 1-0 lead.
The Bucs first missed chance came in the bottom of the inning as they had a runner thrown out at third attempting to steal ahead of a walk that would have put runners on the corners with one out. Instead, a fly out ended the inning and kept Chipola in front 1-0.
In the 2nd the Bucs had two on with just one out after an Indian error, but a strikeout and another runner gunned down at third ended the frame and kept it a 1-0 game.
Three hits, a pair of walks, and a defensive miscue gave Chipola three runs in the 3rd, upping their lead to 4-0 after 2 1/2 innings of play.
The Bucs got on the board courtesy of a wild pitch in the 3rd, but couldn't inflict further damage, leaving the bases loaded after a strikeout ended the frame with FSW trailing 4-1.
FSW put more traffic on the basepaths in the 4th with a pair of walks to give them two on with no outs, but two more strikeouts and a pop up on the infield ended the threat without the runners moving as it remained a 4-1 game after four.
Chipola added a run in the 5th and two more in the 6th to make it a 7-1 game after 5 1/2.
The Bucs had another chance to get back into the game in the bottom half of the 6th as they again put two on, but a ground out back to the pitcher thwarted the threat and the Indians finished things off in the 7th to come away with a 7-1 win.
The Indians outhit the Bucs 11-4 in the contest and FSW made 2 errors that cost them 2 runs in the loss. Tommy Joseph had 2 hits to account for half of the Bucs offense at the top of the FSW lineup. Grant Besser took the loss in his first collegiate start, allowing 6 hits and 4 runs, 3 earned, while striking out 4 in 2 2/3 innings of work.
The Bucs wrap up play at the Marissa Gusto Memorial Tournament on Sunday when they host Gulf Coast State in a 10 AM first pitch from City of Palms Park.
