STORY PUBLISHED ON 2/13
FORT MYERS, FLA.- Florida SouthWestern State Athletics is still in its infancy stages, but its successes are not. In just their fourth year of a respawn of their athletic department, the Buccaneers are in the midst of a run that collegiate athletics at any level may have never seen before. Dating back to December 10th, across their four different sports (Baseball, Softball, Mens & Women's Basketball), FSW has won 54 straight games.
1- The run for the Bucs began inauspiciously enough with an 89-51 win for the Women's Basketball team at home in Suncoast Credit Union Arena. There was no way to tell then, as folks were more worried about their Christmas shopping than FSW's record at the break, just what that seemingly meaningless win would be starting.
5- The Bucs women's basketball team went on to win twice more, unchallenged, before the break while the men's basketball team, ranked 6th in the country at the time, took back to back road games to close out the first half.
9- FSW's hoops squads returned home after the holiday layoff and each breezed to a pair of easy wins before the start of the new year.
21- As the calendar turned to January, conference play began for the FSW basketball teams as they both continued their domination of their Sunshine State competitors. Four weeks into the new year both the men's and women's teams found themselves untested in four conference tilts while sprinkling in victories a couple of non-conference tune-ups to stay sharp during their bye weeks.
31- With the rest of the country trying to thaw out from a bitterly cold winter, the FSW baseball and softball teams were ready to get their seasons going in late January. The Bucs baseball team, coming into the season off of three straight losing campaigns, had far different expectations than the #3 Nationally ranked and perennial powerhouse FSW softball squad. However, the two had similar results on opening weekend, getting dominating pitching and enough runs to back their arms, with baseball going 3-0 in a sweep of ASA Miami and softball going 5-0 in their opening tournament to make the streak 29. Add to that a pair of 100 point performances on the hardwood at Hillsborough and the 10-0 weekend for the Bucs pushed the streak past 30.
34- Bucs baseball took a 1-0 pitcher's duel to close out their January schedule and FSW softball won a pair of 8-0 run rules to close theirs, each adding to their unbeaten starts in 2019.
38- Admittedly, few thought that the streak would continue too far into the month of February as FSW's baseball team faced a murderer's row in their schedule, playing three straight games on the road against the two teams that played for the National Championship in 2018, #1 ranked Chipola and #2 ranked Walters State. The Bucs upset Walters 9-6 in their first game of the weekend, the first win over a ranked team in program history, but didn't stop there, taking down the defending National Champion Indians twice the next day to get out of the weekend unscathed. In Fort Myers, the Bucs men's Basketball team continued their march through Suncoast Conference play, earning a 16 point win over SCF-Manatee in their first game as the NJCAA's #1 ranked team.
43- Two more wins for the steamrolling Bucs softball team and another win for FSW's baseball squad pushed the streak past 40, but there were some questions if it would survive the night of February 6th where both FSW basketball teams were pushed to their limits before emerging with close wins on the road at Eastern Florida and Polk State.
52- The weekend brought more tests to the Bucs as softball took on perennial power and #14 Salt Lake and basketball faced conference road battles at St. Petersburg. Softball took care of their business, dismissing the four time national runner-up Bruins in a 12-4 run rule before sweeping through the rest of the weekend 4-0. Men's basketball came from behind to take down the Titans and women's basketball shook off a slow start to earn their 21st straight win while baseball improved upon their already best start in program history with a home and home sweep of Indian River to push the streak past 50.
54- Wednesday night the streak continued as the FSW women's basketball team demolished Hillsborough 103-66 and the men won their 15th straight by a score of 107-66.
Today the Bucs will be tested again as baseball hits the road against the pro baseball factory in Miami Dade and softball travels across the state to take on Palm Beach State.
At some point in time, the streak will end, but its trail blazed in history will live on for generations to come. Efforts are being made to determine whether a streak such as this has ever been accomplished before at any level of collegiate athletics. Regardless of whether it has or hasn't, it has been an exciting two month stretch for Buc fans at FSW.
Fans will get a chance to see the FSW teams in action at home in the next week as baseball hosts Miami Dade Friday at 4 PM and softball hosts #8 Indian River at 1 PM Sunday at City of Palms Park, while women's basketball is home in Suncoast Credit Union Arena against IMG in a 5:30 PM tip Wednesday and both basketball teams are home next Saturday, February 23rd to wrap up the regular season in a 12/2 PM doubleheader.
FOLLOW THE BUCS
For the latest news on FSW Athletics, log on to FSWBucs.com or stay connected to the Bucs on social media. Follow the Buccaneers on Twitter @FSWBucs, on Instagram @FSWBucs, on Facebook at Facebook.com/FSWBucs and on Snapchat at BucsSnaps.
WATCH THE BUCS ONLINE
All of FSW's home games will be available online through FSW Livestream (FSW.edu/livestream), and can be viewed on smartphones, tablets and laptop or desktop computers.
FLORIDA SOUTHWESTERN
The Florida SouthWestern State College athletic program is a member of the Florida College System Athletic Association (FCSAA) and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). The Buccaneers are one of 25 schools in the NJCAA Region 8 and are one of six schools in the Suncoast Conference. Florida SouthWestern State College currently supports four intercollegiate athletic programs (Baseball, Softball, Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball).
Baseball and Softball began their regular season competition in 2016 at the City of Palms Park in Fort Myers. Located on the Thomas Edison (Lee) Campus in Fort Myers is the brand new Suncoast Credit Union Arena (completed in fall 2016), where FSW's men's and women's basketball and volleyball teams compete.