Posted: Apr 15, 2023
MELBOURNE, Fla.- The Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers suffered a gut-wrenching extra innings loss Saturday at Bruce Bochy Field in Melbourne, scoring a 12th inning run against Eastern Florida to take a 2-1 lead, just to see the Titans come back and score two in the bottom of the inning for a 3-2 walk off win to sweep the quick two game set on the Space Coast.
Early on it was an old fashioned pitcher's duel between FSW's Reyn Watson and Eastern's Dalton Robinson. The two lefties matched zeros, sending the game quickly to the 5th scoreless at 0-0.
The Bucs were first to break through as Nate Earley singled home a run the other way in the 5th to put FSW in front 1-0, but the Titans quickly matched it with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at 1.
FSW put their leadoff man on in both the 6th and 7th , but couldn't do anything with them while Eastern had a scoring chance in the bottom of the 7th but couldn't push anything across as it remained a 1-1 game as the teams went to the 8th.
The Titans threatened again in the 8th, loading the bases with two outs after back to back walks, but FSW reliever Lucas Hartman enduced a ground ball on the infield to get the Bucs out of the jam and keep it a 1-1 game after eight.
Neither team scored in the 9th and to extra innings they went with the score still 1-1.
Each team put a runner on in the 10th, but neither could move them past first as they moved onto the 11th.
The Bucs got their leadoff man on for the fifth time int he game in the 11th on an Anthony Westbrook single, but three straight strikeouts ended any threat of taking the lead and Zach Locke worked a quick 1-2-3 bottom of the 11th out of the FSW bullpen to send the game to the 12th.
A one out double from Earley got the Bucs going in the 12th and he scored on an infield single from Sergio Rivera to break the 1-1 tie and put FSW in front 2-1.
With the Bucs two outs from victory, Eastern Florida cranked a solo home run to tie the game at 2 and after a double behind it, a single up the middle ended the game in walk off fashion as the Titans came back to stun the Bucs 3-2 to sweep the mini two game set in Melbourne.
Eastern outhit FSW 11-10 in the contest while the Bucs struck out 15 times on the afternoon. Four different Bucs recorded multi-hit games including Earley who was 2-5 and factored in on both of FSW's runs with an RBI and a run scored while Rivera was 2-2 with an RBI off the Bucs bench. All three FSW pitchers fared well as Watson went 4 1/3 and allowed just three hits and one run in his first career start while Hartman went 3 2/3 scoreless and Locke went 3 1/3, striking out four despite taking the loss to fall to 0-2 on the year.
FSW falls for the fifth time in their last six contests as they drop to 27-18 overall and 9-8 in Southern Conference play while Eastern Florida continues to be the Bucs kryptonite, improving to 22-23 overall and 5-12 in conference action with their third win of the season over FSW.
There was both good news and bad news for the Bucs in the other Southern Conference contest played on Saturday as Miami Dade defeated Indian River 2-1 in walk off fashion which on one hand keeps FSW one game in front of Indian River in the race for the final postseason bid from the Southern Conference, but also puts Miami Dade three games up with just four to go in the Bucs quest for their fourth consecutive Conference Championship.
The Bucs will step out of conference play on Monday with a home date against Inspiration Academy at Buccaneers Park before beginning the final week of Southern Conference action Wednesday on the road at Indian River.