Posted: Mar 23, 2022
BRADENTON, Fla.- The #14 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers completed their third consecutive Suncoast Conference sweep on Wednesday, going on the road and hammering State College of Florida 13-1 in a seven inning run rule victory to take hold of the top spot in the conference standings at the midway point of the league slate.
The Bucs got on the scoreboard first as Yadiel Santana and Matthew Corpas doubled home runs to highlight a four run 2nd for FSW to give the Purple and Aqua an early 4-0 lead.
FSW added to their lead in the 3rd as Yadiel Santana singled with one out and stole second before Corpas drove him home with a clutch two out single to make it a 5-0 game.
Bucs starter Alejandro Valiente kept the lead right there, working out of a jam in the 3rd and posting two more zeros in the 4th and 5th to keep FSW in front 5-0.
It remained a 5-0 game to the 7th, but it wouldn't stay that way for long. The Bucs loaded the bases on a walk and a pair of singles and pushed across their sixth run of the game to make it 6-0. Two pitches later a sweet swing from Paul Winland blew the game open as he went a 1-0 pitch sailing over the wall in right for a grand slam to make it a 10-0 game. The Bucs weren't done yet as they put more traffic on the bases with two outs and Satchell Norman cleared the pillows with a three run shot to left to balloon the lead to 13-0.
The Manatees broke up the shutout with a bases loaded walk in the 7th, but they would get no more and with the Bucs up 13-1 at the end of seven, the run rule kicked in to finish off the series sweep for FSW.
The Bucs banged out 15 hits in the win while holding SCF to just five on the night. six different Bucs had multi-hit games in the win including Norman who finished 2-4 with a homer and four RBIs and Jose Izarra who finished 3-5 and was just a homer shy of the cycle. Valiente was locked in on the mound for the Bucs, going five shutout innings, allowing just four hits and striking out seven to improve to 3-1 on the year.
FSW has now won 11 in a row overall to improve to 23-11 and has swept three straight Suncoast Conference series to take the league lead at 10-2 at the midway point of the schedule. SCF falls back to .500 on the season at 17-17 and drops to 4-7 in Suncoast Conference play.
The Bucs will be back in action on Friday when they begin a key Suncoast Conference series against #20 Polk State with first pitch at City of Palms Park scheduled for 3:00 PM.