CHARLOTTE, N.C.- The Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers remained in the Top Five of the NJCAA National Rankings for the fifth straight week, coming in at #3 in the week five poll as announced by the National Office Monday afternoon.
The Bucs lost their hold on the #1 post despite a 4-1 record over a busy weekend at the NFCA Classic in Columbus, Georgia. The Bucs played five games in just over 24 hours to move to 19-3 overall on the year. FSW needed some theatrics on the weekend to come away with the four wins though, erasing an early 8-1 deficit to beat Georgia Military 9-8 and scoring seven times in the 6th inning to beat Wabash Valley in their second game on Friday. Saturday they used a walk off single from Rebeca Laudino to defeat D2 #3 Louisburg 3-2 and battled back from 2-1 down against Gordon State in their final game of the weekend to win 5-2. Their lone loss of the weekend came at the hands of #11 Wallace State.
There was some shuffling in the poll, but the Top 20 teams all remained the same from a week ago in the week five poll. Central Florida took over the #1 position from FSW while Salt Lake slid to #2 in front of the Bucs. Howard and Grayson rounded out the Top Five. By virtue of their win over the Bucs, Wallace State jumped four spots and was the biggest week five riser as they moved to #7 while Indian Hills' slip up against St. Charles cost them four spots from #5 to #9.
The Bucs are in the midst of a 10 day break now before Suncoast Conference play starts on March 16th when they host South Florida State at 5 & 7:30 at City of Palms Park in Downtown Fort Myers.