FORT MYERS, FLA.- Two teams at vastly different points in their seasons met up at City of Palms Park in Fort Myers on Tuesday as the 21-0 and freshly #1 ranked Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers took on the 0-4 Kalamazoo Valley Cougars who started their 2019 season on Sunday. While the Bucs were bundled up on a cool Southwest Florida day with game time temperature around 67, the Cougars were in paradise as Kalamazoo had a high of 18 with snow on Tuesday. The Bucs played cold and the Cougars played hot early in game one as FSW had to come from behind to tie the score and send the game to extra innings where they eventually got a walk off sacrifice fly to win 3-2. In game two though, it was all FSW in an 8-0 six inning run rule to push the Bucs to 23-0 on the year.
Game one got off to an inauspicious start for the Bucs who walked the leadoff batter before committing a pair of errors to allow two runs to score to give Kalamazoo an early 2-0 lead.
The Bucs evened things up in the bottom of the second, getting an RBI single from Haley Ellefson and a bunt single from Rebeca Laudino to score another run and knot the score at two.
From there, the bats on both sides were silent. Neither team could scratch a run across for the next four innings as the game flew to the seventh still tied at two.
On for her third inning of relief, Sarah Lawton carved the Cougars up for FSW in the seventh in a 1-2-3 frame to give the Bucs their first chance to walk the game off in the bottom half.
Laudino picked up her third hit of the game with one out and swiped second base, her third steal of the game, to put a runner in scoring position for FSW, but the Bucs couldn't come through with the big hit and flied out to end the inning and the threat to send the game to extras still deadlocked at two.
With the international tiebreaker in effect in extra innings, the Cougars started with a runner at second in the eighth and bunted her to third on a sacrifice to give them two cracks at breaking the tie. Madison Johnson took care of a ground ball to third and Lawton picked up her fifth strikeout of the game to end the inning and give the Bucs their second chance to win it.
After a strikeout to start the inning, Paris Woods singled on a tap in front of the plate to put runners on the corners with one out. Elsie Rivera came in to pinch hit for the Bucs and was not able to get a bunt down in a safety squeeze situation, but took care of business on the next pitch, sending a ball deep to right for a sac fly to bring home the runner from third and give FSW a 3-2 walk off win.
The Bucs outhit the Cougars 10-5 in the win, but giftwrapped them their two runs early with two costly errors on the infield. Laudino and Woods finished with three hits each while Lawton earned her third win of the season by going four innings out of the FSW pen, allowing just a single hit while striking out five.
#1 FSW/KALAMAZOO VALLEY GAME ONE BOX SCORE
Game two was a different story as the Bucs dominated from the get go.
FSW jumped in front right off the bat, getting a double to the wall from Owen Bowers and an errant throw home from the Kalamazoo outfield to plate a run and take an early 1-0 lead.
The Bucs added another lone tally in the second on a single up the middle off the bat of Alyssa LoSauro and did the same in the third on a shot off the bat of Woods to make it a 3-0 game.
Haley Ellefson was in control in the circle for the Bucs, retiring 13 of the final 14 hitters she faced through five shutout innings to keep FSW in front 3-0.
The Bucs added some insurance in the bottom of the fifth when Woods launched her first home run of the season over the wall in right for a two run shot to push the lead to 5-0.
FSW was ready to call it a day in the sixth and they did just that as Ellefson helped herself with a leadoff single to get the Bucs going. Ciara Ford was hit by a pitch to put two on with one out and on an 0-2 pitch to Laudino, the freshman sent the ball screaming out to right field and over the wall for a three run shot to kick in the run rule in an 8-0 FSW win.
The Bucs dominated all three phases of the game in the win, outhitting Kalamazoo 10-1 while playing a clean sheet on defense. Laudino and Woods were the offensive stars for the second straight game, combining for six RBI's from the left side of the plate. Ellefson earned the win in the circle, going five shutout innings, allowing just one hit to improve to 8-0 on the year.
#1 FSW/KALAMAZOO VALLEY GAME TWO BOX SCORE
Just hours after being ranked as the #1 team in the country in the first NJCAA regular season poll of the year, the Bucs improved to 23-0 in 2019. Kalamazoo Valley falls to 0-6 on their trip to the Sunshine State.
The Bucs will be right back at it on Wednesday when they host Miami Dade at City of Palms Park in doubleheader action beginning at 4 PM.