Posted: Apr 22, 2023
FORT MYERS, Fla.- The Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers are headed back to the postseason. Johnnie Lopez cranked a pair of home runs and Kelan Hoover threw six solid innings on the mound as the Bucs beat the visiting Eastern Florida State Titans 8-2 to seal up second place in the Southern Conference standings and punch their ticket to the 2023 NJCAA Region VIII Tournament.
Eastern struck first, taking advantage of an FSW walk and a failed pick off attempt in the 2nd to score the game's first run before adding another later in the inning on a sacrifice fly to take a 2-0 lead after two innings of play.
The Bucs answered in the 3rd , loading the bases with nobody out without putting the ball in play, using a hit batter and two walks to set the table for the middle of their order. A groundout plated one and an Eastern Florida error allowed a second run to score to knot things up at 2 at the end of three.
Kelen Hoover induced a double play ball to get out of a jam in the 4th and keep momentum on the Bucs side and the offense put up another crooked number in the bottom of the inning as Aries Samek smoked a ground rule double to drive in the go ahead run before Johnnie Lopez cracked his fourth homer of the year out to right center to put the Bucs in front 5-2.
Now pitching with the lead, Hoover retired the side in order in the 5th and 6th frames to keep it a 5-2 game before handing it over to Yehoshua Garcia who worked a 1-2-3 top of the 7th out of the bullpen to send the game to stretch time with the score still 5-2.
The Bucs looked like they were going to breeze through another inning in the 8th , but a ball lost in the sun extended the frame and brought the tying run to the plate with two outs. Zach Locke didn't let the mishap effect him on the mound as he got a pop out to right to end the threat and keep the Bucs in front by three as the game moved to the bottom of the 8th .
The FSW bats cushioned the lead in the bottom of the 8th as Nate Earley doubled, Samek tripled, and Lopez smashed his second home run of the day into the Bucs bullpen to plate three runs and put the game out of reach at 8-2.
Locke closed it out in the 9th with a pair of strikeouts as FSW took their penultimate game of the regular season 8-2 over the Titans.
Lopez and Samek carried the offense at the bottom of the FSW order as Lopez had his best game of his young career, going 2-2 with two home runs and four RBIs while Samek was 2-3 with a double, a triple, and two RBIs. The Bucs got a solid effort from all three pitchers in the win as Hoover went six innings and allowed just one earned run to earn the win and improve to 4-1 on the year while Garcia went a scoreless frame and Locke went the final two to earn his second save of the season.
With the win, the Bucs earn victory number 30 of the season, improving to 30-19 overall while upping their Southern Conference mark to 11-9. Eastern Florida falls to 22-26 overall and 5-15 in league play in the defeat.
Before the Bucs left the field, they got the news that Miami Dade had defeated Indian River 13-3, sending the team into an immediate celebration as it meant that FSW had clinched their spot in the postseason as the number two seed out of the Southern Conference for the upcoming NJCAA Region VIII Tournament. The Bucs postseason matchup will be a tough one as FSW will square off with #2 Central Florida, the defending FCSAA State Champions and the program that first year Bucs Head Coach Zac Cole helped lead to the Juco World Series a season ago. That series will begin May 5th in Ocala with a best two out of three format on tap between the two.
The Bucs will be at home one final time on Wednesday as they wrap up the regular season with a 2 PM date with Eastern Florida at Buccaneers Park in Fort Myers. It will be Sophomore Day at the park with the Bucs sophomores being recognized prior to the contest.
