AVON PARK, Fla.- Florida SouthWestern State Head Coach Ben Bizier woke up to bad news on his birthday Friday, finding out his scheduled starting pitcher was going to be unable to go due to soreness in his arm.  That left the Bucs third year head man in a tough spot as FSW had already played three games in three days earlier in the week, burning through 25 innings of pitching in the meantime.  That's when Robert Wegielnik gave Bizier maybe his best birthday present of all as he stepped to the forefront and dealt six shutout innings in emergency duty, leading FSW to a 5-1 win over South Florida State in the two teams Suncoast Conference series opener.  

 

It was a good old fashioned pitcher's duel early on as Wegielnik and South Florida State starter Myles Caba matched zeros through the first four innings as the game flew to the 5th scoreless. 

 

The Bucs took advantage of a Panther miscue in the 5th as with two outs, a catcher's interference allowed them to keep the inning going and after a bloop single from Christian Lucio, the Bucs were on the board with a 1-0 lead.  Later in the inning, a failed pickoff attempt by South Florida State allowed the Bucs second run of the inning to score to give FSW a 2-0 lead at the midway point of the contest.  

 

Wegielnik continued to cruise in the bottom of the 5th, picking up two more strikeouts before blanking the Panthers again in the 6th to keep it a 2-0 game in favor of FSW into the 7th. 

 

Wegielnik handed the ball over to Ronaldo Fernandez in the 7th and he picked up where the sidewinder left off, throwing up a zero in the 7th and another in the 8th to keep it a 2-0 game to the 9th.  

 

The Bucs added some insurance in the top half of the 9th as Carter Cunningham singled up the middle to drive home a run and scored himself after stealing second and coming home on an RBI single from Ronny Medina to make it 4-0.  Later in the inning Warnner Rincones put the nail in the coffin with an RBI double to make it a 5-0 game with the Panthers down to their last three outs of the night. 

 

South Florida State broke up the shutout bid with a run in the 9th, but Fernandez got a double play ball to close things out, giving the Bucs their third straight series opening win to begin conference play, 5-1.  

 

FSW banged out 13 hits in the win, getting contributions from 10 different players offensively. Rincones was 3-6 with an RBI at the top of the order for FSW while Jared Campbell finished 2-3 with a run scored.  

 

The story was on the mound though where Wegielnik, just two days after throwing 2 2/3 innings on Tuesday to close out a win and picking up a save a day later to secure the Bucs sweep of Hillsborough, threw six shutout innings, allowing just three hits and striking out six to earn his fourth win of the season.  Fernandez closed the game out with three innings of solid baseball to earn his second save of the year.  

 

FSW improves to 22-8 and takes over the top spot in the Suncoast Conference standings for the time being at 6-1 wile South Florida State falls to 11-17 overall and 1-6 in league play. 

 

The same two teams will play Saturday at City of Palms Park in a 1 PM first pitch from Downtown Fort Myers.