FORT MYERS, Fla.- The freshly crowned Suncoast Conference Champion Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers rolled off their eighth straight win Saturday afternoon at City of Palms Park in Downtown Fort Myers 10-4 over State College of Florida, and in the process set a new program record for wins in a season with their 41st victory of 2021. 

 

It was a pitcher's duel early on as FSW's Alex Ayala and SCF's David Barrett matched zeros through the first three innings of action. 

 

Ayala worked his fourth straight scoreless frame in the 4th and his offense finally rewarded him in the bottom half of the frame as Luis Tuero cracked his first homer as a Buc out to right for a two run shot and Carter Cunningham singled through the right side later in the inning for another run to put FSW up 3-0 after four.  

 

The Manatees finally broke through with a run in the 5th despite not recording a hit, but the Bucs answered right back with a run of their own on a double from Matthew Corpas down the left field line to push their lead back to three at 4-1.  

 

Ayala came out after five solid innings of work in the 6th and that's when things went South for the Bucs on the mound. Back to back walks followed by a hit batter loaded the bases for the Manatees, again without a hit.  Another walk forced a run home to make it 4-2, before FSW Head Coach Ben Bizier pulled out his ace in the hole, closer Antonio Knowles to work the Bucs out of the jam and hold the two run lead for the Purple and Aqua.  

 

Knowles worked a quick 1-2-3 top of the 7th with a pair of strikeouts to keep the game right there and the Bucs gave the righthander some breathing room after stretch time. 

 

Simon Baumer ripped a double to right to drive home Corpas who tripled with one out in the inning, and Baumer then scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-2.  Later in the inning Tuero picked up his third RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly to left to make it a 7-2 contest.  

 

The Bucs put the game away in the 8th when Baumer cleared the bases with a double to make it 10-2 game.  

 

SCF made things interesting in the 9th, homering on the first pitch of the frame and adding another run later in the inning, but with one out and two on, Bucs reliever Grant Besser induced a double play ball to close things out and give FSW a 10-4 win. 

 

Baumer led the Bucs offense with a 2-4, four RBI afternoon while Corpas had a double a triple, and an RBI in the win.  Ayala earned the win on the mound, going five innings and allowing just three hits and one run to earn his FSW single season record eighth win of the year to improve to 8-2.  Knowles went 2 1/3 innings of hitless baseball striking out five.  

 

The Bucs win their eighth straight to improve to 41-13 overall and 22-6 in Suncoast action on the season. The 41 wins sets a new program record set back in 2019 with Bizier's original Bucs squad.  

 

State College of Florida drops a big one in their quest for a playoff spot as they fall to 33-20 overall and 17-11 in conference action.  The Manatees are in a dead heat at 17-11 in conference with two games to go to decide weather they, or Polk State will represent the Suncoast Conference with the Bucs are the state tournament.  

 

The Bucs and Manatees will resume the series on Monday in Bradenton with first pitch scheduled at 3 PM.