CLEARWATER, Fla.- The #17 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers had their seven game win streak come to an end Friday afternoon in Clearwater as a misplayed fly ball in the Bucs outfield followed by a line drive single to the right center field gap by St. Petersburg broke a 3-3 tie and walked FSW off with two outs in the bottom of the 9th in game two of the three game set.  

 

After being embarrassed by FSW in game one of the series 18-2, St. Petersburg got off to a much better start on their home field Friday, getting a run in the 1st and two more in the 2nd to take an early 3-0 lead on the Bucs.  

 

The Bucs cracked the scoreboard first in the 4th as they put two runners in scoring position with nobody out.  It was harder than it should have been to get them in though as back to back strikeouts for the Bucs forced them to get tricky as Warnner Rincones scored on a hustle play on a passed ball and Carter Cunningham stole home after a failed rundown attempt by the Titans to make it 3-2.  Later in the inning Abimelec Ortiz ripped a double to the center field wall to knot the score up at 3 after four innings of play. 

 

The Bucs bullpen and Ronaldo Fernandez in particular, locked it down from there on the mound, holding St. Petersburg without a hit from the 5th to the 8th inning, but the FSW offense couldn't get anything going either as the game flew to the 9th still tied at 3.  

 

The 9th wasn't pretty for the Bucs as in their half, they watched three straight strikeouts to send the game to the bottom of the frame still tied at 3.  

 

It looked like St. Petersburg would have the same fate in the bottom of the 9th, that being a 1-2-3 inning, and closer Antonio Knowles was halfway off the field after inducing a routine popup to left field that should have ended the inning, but instead it dropped in the outfield for a fortuities double to put the winning run on base. Two pitches later, the Titans ripped a single to the right center field gap, scoring the run from second and walking off the Bucs with a 4-3 victory. 

 

FSW had just four hits in the game and Ortiz had the Bucs only RBI on the afternoon. Fernandez was outstanding on the mound for the Bucs, going 4 2/3 hitless innings, striking out a career high seven to keep FSW in the game. Knowles took the tough luck loss, falling to 2-1 on the year as he allowed an 'earned' run for the first time on the season, going 2/3 of an inning and allowing two hits and one run.  

 

The Bucs see a seven game winning streak come to an end with the loss as they fall to 25-9 overall and 9-2 in Suncoast Conference play while St. Petersburg improves to 16-10 overall and 6-5 in league play.  

 

The two teams will play the rubber game of the three game set on Saturday at City of Palms Park in Downtown Fort Myers with first pitch set for 1 PM.