BRADENTON, Fla.- The #15 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers couldn't come up with the big hit Monday night on the road at #16 State College of Florida, falling 4-0 to the Manatees in game one of a three game set to decide first place between the two at the midway point of the Suncoast Conference standings.  

 

The Manatees were first to crack the scoreboard in the series opener, plating three runs in the bottom of the 3rd to take an early 3-0 lead.  

 

The Bucs had a chance to strike back in the 4th, putting two runners in scoring position with two outs, but a ground ball ended the threat and kept it a 3-0 game in favor of State College of Florida.  

 

FSW went down quietly in order in the 5th and 6th innings while their pitching staff put up a pair of zeros to keep it a 3-0 game.  

 

The Bucs put together their best scoring threat of the night in the top of the 7th against the Manatee bullpen, but after putting two on with nobody out, a tailor made double play ball and a fly out to left squished the rally and kept a goose egg on the visitors side of the scoreboard.  

 

Robert Wegielnik worked his way out of trouble with three strikeouts for the Bucs in the bottom of the 7th and FSW threatened again in the 8th, bringing the tying run to the plate with two outs, but again, a strikeout brought the inning to a close with the Manatees continuing to lead 3-0.  

 

SCF added an unearned run thanks to an FSW error in the 8th and the Bucs went quietly in the 9th as the Manatees buttoned up their shutout to take the series opener 4-0.  

 

The Bucs had six hits in the loss, matching the Manatees total in the ballgame, but were 0-7 with runners in scoring position which was the difference in the game.  Warnner Rincones was the lone FSW hitter with more than one hit in the loss as he went 2-4.  Enrique Cotto suffered his first loss of the season, falling to 3-1, allowing six hits and three runs in 4 1/3 innings.  Wegielnik went 3 2/3 out of the Bucs bullpen without allowing a hit while striking out six.  

 

The Bucs fall to 26-10 overall with the loss and move to 10-3 in Suncoast Conference play while State College of Florida improves to 25-10 and matches the Bucs conference record at 10-3.  

 

The same two teams will go head to head in game two of the series Wednesday afternoon in Fort Myers in a 3 PM first pitch from City of Palms Park.