FORT MYERS, Fla.- The defending Suncoast Conference Champion Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers Baseball team got their title defense off to a good start Monday night at City of Palms Park in Downtown Fort Myers, beating the visiting Polk State 9-5 to kick off a three game series with the Eagles.
Polk scored first, getting back to back two out hits in the 1st to go ahead early 1-0.
FSW answered right away, as Tommy Joseph and Warnner Rincones roped back to back doubles in the bottom of the 1st and Rincones later scored on an RBI single to right from Jared Campbell to make it 2-1.
The Bucs added an unearned run on a Polk error in the 2nd to push their lead to 3-1.
Neither side pushed anything else across until the 5th when Polk scored a run in the top half to cut the Bucs lead to 3-2.
FSW opened things up from there. The Bucs scored five times in the bottom of the 5th, getting a huge three run home run from Noah Heisler that was sent into the night and an RBI double off the wall from Cameran Brantley to stretch the FSW lead to 8-2.
Polk worked their way back to within striking distance, getting two in the 7th and another in the 8th to make it an 8-5 game, but Joseph got the Bucs an insurance run back in the bottom of the 8th to push the FSW advantage back to 9-5.
Polk loaded the bases in the 9th and brought the tying run to the plate, but Brendan Koester came in and retired the final two hitters of the game to close things out in a 9-5 FSW victory.
Polk actually outhit FSW 12-10 in the game, but the Bucs took advantage of two costly Eagle errors to score three unearned runs in the contest. The Bucs bullpen ate up eight big innings after starter Mason Adams exited after just one inning of work, with Robert Wegielnik earning the victory with 5 solid frames, punching out 8 while allowing 3 runs to improve to 2-1 on the year. Ty Burton went 2 1/3 to hold the lead before giving way to Koester for his second save of the year. Heisler's three run shot did the bulk of the damage for the Bucs but Joseph, Rincones, and Campbell each had 2 hits and an RBI for FSW.
The Bucs improve to 14-8 overall and 1-0 in Suncoast Conference action with the victory while Polk State falls to 10-11 and 0-1 in league action.
The same two teams will go at it Wednesday in Winter Haven before closing the series out at City of Palms Park on Friday at 3 PM.
FLORIDA SOUTHWESTERN/POLK STATE BOX SCORE