BRADENTON, Fla.- Josiah Velazquez came into a bases loaded, no out situation in the 9^th inning and calmly struck out the side to close out a 7-4 win for the #11 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers Thursday in their series opener against the State College of Florida Manatees in Bradenton. 

 

The Bucs struck right away against former teammate Landon O'Donnell who drew the start for the Manatees. A pair of walks to start the game turned into two 1^st inning runs as Jake Mueller singled back up the middle with one out to give FSW an early 2-0 lead. 

 

State College of Florida looked like they were going to answer right away in the bottom of the 1^st as they loaded the bases without an out, but FSW starter Abel Albarran wiggled his way out of the jam without allowing a run to keep the Bucs in front 2-0 after one. 

 

The Bucs had more traffic in the 2^nd, this time it was Ty Hamilton cashing in a two out run on a single to center to extend the FSW lead to 3-0. 

 

The Manatees got on the board for the first time with a two out rally in the bottom of the 2nd, but FSW quickly answered with an RBI single from Carlos Sanchez in the 3^rd to push their lead back to three at 4-1. 

 

FSW continued to put pressure on the Manatees in the 4^th as Brock Knoerr singled to lead off the inning and moved to third on a stolen base and a Manatee error before Mueller drove him in with a groundout to push the Bucs lead to 5-1. 

 

Things quieted down from there as neither team scored through the middle innings, sending the game to stretch time with FSW still in front 5-1. 

 

Free passes got the Bucs in trouble in the bottom of the 7^th as two straight walks to begin the inning turned into a pair of runs to get the Manatees back to within two at 5-3. Later in the inning SCF scored their third run of the frame to draw to within one at 5-4 at the end of seven. 

 

Three walks and a wild pitch gifted FSW a run back in the 8^th and an RBI groundout from Michael McAloose gave the Bucs two runs without a hit in the inning to pad their lead back to 7-4. 

 

Cole Greer fired a big scoreless bottom of the 8^th for the Bucs to send the game to the 9^th with the score FSW 7 and SCF 4. 

 

FSW was looking for insurance in the top of the 9^th and put runners on the corners with two outs, but couldn't come through with the big hit and it remained a 7-4 game to the bottom of the 9th. 

 

A pair of singles and a five pitch walk loaded the bases with nobody out for SCF in the bottom of the 9th. With the tying runs on base and the game winning run at the plate, the Bucs turned to southpaw Josiah Velazquez out of the bullpen.  Velazquez came in and got a big strikeout to take some of the pressure off the Purple and Aqua and then dialed up another K to give the Bucs two outs in the inning. With the game on the line, Velazquez remained dialed in, punching out the next Manatee hitter on three straight pitches to close things out and give FSW a 7-4 victory. 

 

The Bucs were outhit 13-6 in the win, but took advantage of 11 SCF walks in the contest. Sanchez was the only FSW player with multiple hits in the victory, finishing 2-5 with a double and an RBI while Mueller was just 1-5, but drove in three. 

 

Greer picked up the win out of the FSW bullpen, going two innings and scattering five hits to improve to 1-1 on the year while Velazquez struck out all three hitters he faced in the 9^th to close things out and earn his first save of the season. Albarran went four innings and allowed six hits and one run while striking out five, but did not factor into the decision. 

 

The win keeps the Bucs atop the Citrus Conference standings at 19-5 overall and 7-3 in league play while State College of Florida falls one game off the pace at 16-8 overall and 6-4 in conference action. 

 

The Bucs and Manatees will wrap up the series on Saturday at Buccaneers Park in Fort Myers with a doubleheader scheduled for a noon first pitch.