FORT MYERS, Fla.- The #12 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers won their fifth straight game Wednesday afternoon at City of Palms Park, much in the same way they won the previous four, dominating pitching.  For the fifth straight game, FSW pitching allowed two runs or less, in this case, eight innings of one run ball from starter Enrique Cotto as the Bucs took a 4-1 decision over visiting St. Petersburg to inch close to their second straight Suncoast Conference title. 

 

It was the Bucs defense that shined early on and in particular Yadiel Santana in left field who made a diving play on a ball coming in to start the 2nd inning and then threw a runner out at second on a ball down the line to keep the game scoreless through an inning and a half of action.  

 

The Bucs got on the board first in the bottom of the 2nd as they loaded the bases with nobody out and got a sacrifice fly off the bat of Ronny Medina to take a 1-0 lead.  Three pitches later Axel Melendez tucked a ball inside the right field line for an RBI double to push the lead to 2-0.  

 

After FSW started Enrique Cotto worked his third straight scoreless frame in the top of the 3rd, the Bucs added to their advantage when Carter Cunningham walked, stole second, and then scored on an RBI double from Simon Baumer to make it 3-0. 

 

The Bucs tacked on another in the 4th when Santana crushed his first career home run out to right to make it a 4-0 ballgame.  

 

Cotto kept it that way all the way to the 7th, slicing and dicing through the Titan batting order unscathed to keep the Bucs in front 4-0. 

 

St. Petersburg finally broke through against Cotto on the 7th with a single tally, but that is all they would get as Cotto shut the Titan rally down from there and worked a scoreless 8th before handing it over to Antonio Knowles for a 1-2-3 9th to lock down a 4-1 win for FSW. 

 

Cotto was the story, going eight innings and allowing just four hits and one run to improve to 6-1 on the year.  Knowles locked down his 12th save of the season with a perfect 9th. Santana and Baumer each had two hits and an RBI for a nine hit attack for the Bucs while Cunningham reached in three of four plate appearances in his first action in nearly a month.  

 

The Bucs win their fifth straight and improve to 38-13 overall with the victory while pushing their Suncoast Conference record to 19-6 where they will hold no less than a two game lead at night's end. St. Petersburg falls back to .500 overall at 21-21 and drops to 9-16 in league play in the defeat. 

 

The Bucs and Titans will be right back at it on Thursday in Clearwater with first pitch scheduled for 3:30 PM.