FORT MYERS, Fla.- February Baseball games don't get much bigger than the Citrus Conference doubleheader between the #4 Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers and the #22 Indian River State Pioneers Saturday afternoon at Buccaneers Park in Fort Myers. The top two teams in the league standings squared off in a pair of pitcher's duals with Andrew McLaughlin gutting out six dominant innings in a 5-2 FSW win in game one before Parker Burgess took the ball and was nearly unhittable over six shutout innings, leading the Bucs to their first nine inning shutout since 2022 and their first 1-0 win since January of 2019. 

 

Game one couldn't have gotten off to a better scripted start for the Bucs as Andrew McLaughlin fired a seven pitch 1-2-3 top half of the 1^st inning and Carlos Sanchez drove home Anthony Ruocco from second after a one out double in the bottom of the 1^st to give FSW a 1-0 lead at the end of one. 

 

Indian River got a run back in the top of the 3^rd on a controversial play down the line to begin the inning followed by a two out single through the left side to bring him home and tie the score at 1. 

 

An FSW error in the 4^th allowed Indian River to get an unearned run to take their first lead of the game, but the Bucs answered in the bottom half of the inning as Ty Hamilton ripped a two run double to the wall in right to put FSW back in front 3-2. 

 

Pitching with the lead, McLaughlin was dialed in in the 5^th, striking out a pair in a big shutdown inning to keep the Bucs in front 3-2 after 4 1/2. 

 

The Bucs got into the Pioneers bullpen in the 5^th and took advantage, putting two on with nobody out before Nathan Fink bounced a two run single through a drawn in infield to pad the FSW lead to 5-2. 

 

McLaughlin became the first FSW starter to work into the 6^th when he took the ball with the 5-2 lead and he showed there was still plenty of gas in the tank as he struck out two more Pioneers and breezed through the frame to keep the Bucs up by three as the teams went to the 7th. 

 

The Bucs went to the bullpen for the first time in the 7^th and after a leadoff triple off the wall in left center, FSW reliever Robert Mitchell retired the next three hitters in order, closing out the game in style with a strikeout to wrap up a 5-2 win in the opener for the Bucs. 

 

The Bucs outhit the Pioneers 9 to 5 in the win with Sanchez leading the way with a perfect 3-3 effort and Fink finishing 2-3 with a pair of RBIs. 

 

McLaughlin was electric in the win, going six innings, allowing just four hits and one earned run while striking out a career high seven to improve to 4-0 on the year. Mitchell threw a scoreless 7^th to earn his first career save. 

 

 

Game two of the doubleheader was an unexpected old fashioned pitcher's dual between the top two hitting teams in the Citrus Conference. 

 

FSW's Parker Burgess and Indian River's Shane Lavin matched zeros through the first six innings with the only hit from either side through the first five coming on a tapper back to the mound that the Pioneers beat out at first base. 

 

Indian River had their best scoring chance of the game in the top of the 6^th when they put two on with two out, but Burgess came up with a huge strikeout, his eighth of the day to get out of the jam and keep the game scoreless. 

 

The Bucs got their first hit of the game in the bottom of the inning, a clean single the other way, but that runner was stranded at inning's end as the game flew to the seventh still knotted at 0-0. 

 

Burgess exited after six outstanding innings and gave way to the Bucs bullpen in the 7^th and Abel Albarran took the mound and continued the domination, firing a 1-2-3 frame to keep the game scoreless at stretch time. 

 

The Bucs began the bottom of the 7^th with a single from Jake Mueller off the Pioneers pitcher and he moved into scoring position on a wild pitch with nobody out. Another ball off the Indian River hurler was taken care of for the seocnd out of the inning, but Mueller moved to third on the play which proved huge one batter later.  Brock Knoerr grounded a ball to the right side and beat the Pioneers pitcher to the bag on the flip to bring the run home and break the scoreless tie to put the Bucs ahead 1-0. 

 

Both teams wasted a one out single in the 8^th and the game went to 9^th with the score still 1-0 in favor of FSW. 

 

Indian River put their leadoff man on for just the second time in the game to begin the 9^th but he was quickly erased on a tailor made double play ball up the middle to shut down the rally for the time being.  A walk once again put the tying run on for the Pioneers, but a ground ball back to Albarran on the mound was handled and brought the game to a close as the Bucs finished off the 1-0 shutout victory. 

 

The shutout was FSW's first nine inning shutout in three seasons and it was the first 1-0 win for the Bucs since January of 2019 when Ryan Gusto, Saturday's Houston Astros Spring Training starter, was the winning pitcher. 

 

Burgess fired six shutout innings, allowing just an infield single while striking out a career high eight to improve to 2-0 on the year. Albarran nailed down his first career save with three high leverage innings to close things out. 

 

The game featured just seven total hits, four for FSW and three for Indian River.  Luke Orfi was the lone player to pick up multiple hits, finishing 2-4 at the top of the Buccaneer order. 

 

 

FSW wins the huge Citrus Conference series to improve to 15-3 overall and through two weekends of league play while Indian River falls back to 12-5 overall and 3-3 in conference action. 

 

The Bucs step out of conference action on Tuesday when they travel to Clearwater to take on St. Petersburg in a 6 PM first pitch before returning to Buccaneers Park to open a three game conference series with Hillsborough on Thursday at 2 PM.