Posted: May 23, 2024
OXFORD, Ala.- The #3 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers jumped on the Wallace State Lions early and never looked back Wednesday night under the lights at the NJCAA World Series in Oxford, Alabama, scoring the game's first five runs before cruising to a 7-1 win to remain alive and advance to the round of eight.
The Bucs jumped on the Lions right away Wednesday, taking advantage of a pair of errors with a two out RBI single from Ella Moore to right to plate a run and take an early 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st.
Wallace looked to answer in the bottom of the inning, putting two runners in scoring position with one out, but FSW starter Lea Chevrier worked out of the jam with a strikeout and a pop out to keep the Lions off the board and the Bucs up 1-0 after one.
The Bucs had more traffic in the 2nd as a hit batter and a Wallace error set the table before Kmari Williams drove a run home on a groundout to second to double the lead to 2-0.
FSW opened things up in the 3rd as they loaded the bases with nobody out before Sietske Drijvers drew a walk to force a run home to make it 3-0. Later in the frame Maddy Golka ripped a double down the left field line to score a pair to bump the Bucs lead to 5-0.
Chevrier remained locked in in the circle for the Bucs, working a 1-2-3 bottom of the 3rd to keep FSW in front 5-0 after three.
Wallace finally got on the scoreboard in the 5th , taking advantage of an FSW error to push across an unearned run to make it 5-1, but Chevrier got a pop up on the infield to strand a pair of baserunners in scoring position after the miscue to keep the Bucs up four as the teams moved to the 6th.
The Bucs used their speed to add some insurance in the 6th as D'Yani McKinley smacked a leadoff triple down the right field line to get them going and Sydney McCray walked and stole second before a sacrifice fly from Skylar Brennan followed by an RBI groundout from Nicole Edmiaston made it 7-1 Bucs at the end of 5 1/2.
Chevrier did the rest, blanking the Lions in the 6th and then working around a leadoff bloop double in the 7th to close things out and give the Bucs a 7-1 lead to move on in the tournament.
Six different Bucs had hits in the win including Golka who was 1-4 with a double and a pair of RBIs. Chevrier went the distance in the circle, allowing just four hits and one unearned run while striking out five to improve to 25-1 on the year.
FSW improves to 57-9 on the year with the win while Wallace sees their 2024 campaign come to a close at 36-14.
The Bucs fight off their third straight elimination game to advance in the tournament where they will now take on #17 Galveston in a 1 PM (ET) matchup Thursday afternoon. The winner of that game will battle the loser of the Indian River/Northwest Florida winner's bracket semifinal game in the final game of the day on Thursday.