Posted: Mar 17, 2023
FORT MYERS, Fla.- The #20 Miami Dade Sharks homered on the first pitch of the game and never looked back against the Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers Friday afternoon at Buccaneers Park in Fort Myers, hitting four home runs overall in an 8-3 win to even the two teams' Southern Conference series at a game a piece.
Things got off to a less than opportune start for the Bucs as Miami Dade homered on the first pitch of the ballgame and their next three hitters reached base before a pair of groundouts tacked on two more runs to make it 3-0 Sharks after one.
After a scoreless 2nd, the Sharks were back at it in the 3rd as they homered on the first pitch of the inning for the second time in three frames and got another solo shot behind that to make it 5-0.
Miami Dade got their third home run to lead off an inning in the 5th to make it 6-0 before padding their lead to 8-0 with a two out, two run double in the 6th.
Anthony Westbrook cranked out a solo home run of his own to break up the shutout in the 7th and AJ Shaver extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a two run bomb down the line in left, but it wasn't enough as the Bucs fell 8-3 to even the series at a game apiece.
Westbrook was 3-4 with a double and a home run in the loss while Aries Samek and Sergio Rivera had two hits each. It was another brief appearance from an FSW starter as Kelan Hoover went just three innings, allowing six hits and five runs to fall to 2-1 on the mound this season.
FSW falls to 19-11 on the year with the loss while dropping to 3-2 in Southern Conference play. Miami Dade improves to 20-8-1 and takes over the conference lead at 4-1.
The Bucs and Sharks will decide the series Saturday in Miami with first pitch set for 1 PM.