Gainesville, FL - On a windy Thursday afternoon, the Santa Fe Saints hosted the Florida Southwestern State Buccaneers to start off the series. The Saints fell short to the Buccaneers with a score of 16-10. The Saints record moves to 22-16. 

How It Happened

Nick Staszak started on the mound for the Saints, however, Matthew Jenkins took the mound shortly after the start of the first inning. Jenkins pitched for two innings and threw for one strikeout. He allowed seven runs and three hits. Travis Mabin followed up pitching for the Saints. He pitched for three innings, allowed three hits and three runs, and he threw for two strikeouts. Marchelo Biondi, Kristoffer Blanks, Lucas Johns, and Macklin Miller finished up pitching for the Saints. The Saints pitchers had a total of five strikeouts. 

The leading hitter for the Saints was Cory Filley. He had three hits in today's game and had three RBIs. Drake Harman, Javier Soto, BJ Graham, and Grant Gallagher had two hits each. Soto and Gallagher also had two RBIs each while Griffin Sorrow had one.

The starting pitcher for the Buccaneers was Landen Burch. He pitched for four innings. He allowed ten hits, eight runs, and had seven strikeouts. Nate Earley and Luca Danos were the leading hitters with three hits each. Earley also had five RBIs in the game, while Danos had three.

In the top of the first inning, the Buccaneers put the first run on the board after tagging up on a sacrifice hit to center field. In the bottom of the inning, Drake Harman hit a double along the right-field line through first base to give the Saints their first hit of the afternoon. Javier Soto then stepped up to the plate to hit a home run to put the Saints in the lead 2-1.

In the top of the second inning, Jared Davis was walked home to tie the game 2-2. Mathew Shumate then hit a 3-run double to put the Buccaneers back in the lead 5-2. Cooper Clapp then hit a two-run home run to advance the Bucs' lead to 7-2. The Buccaneers scored two more runs to end the inning with a 9-2 lead. In the bottom of the inning, Grant Gallagher hit a double to give the Saints another hit.

In the bottom of the third inning, AJ Barrios made it to second off of a Buccaneer error. Wyatt Campbell was then walked to first base, starting to load up the bases. Cory Filley hit a crucial double to bring in two more Saints runs, decreasing the Buccaneers lead to 9-4. Cory Filley then made it home off of a single from BJ Graham to continue to decrease the lead to 9-5. Grant Gallagher was then walked to first base, putting a Saint on first and second. Landon Rogers then hit a single to load the bases. Griffin Sorrow hit a single to bring home BJ Graham to improve the score once again to 9-6 with bases still loaded. 

Eric Blair hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth inning to progress the lead to 10-6. In the bottom of the inning, Javier Soto hit a single to get the Saints going again. Cory Filley hit a single to bring home Soto, cutting the lead down to 10-7. BJ Graham got up to the plate and hit a game-changing triple to bring home Cory Filley and shrink the deficit to 10-8. 

Justin Thomas made it to first base in the top of the fifth inning off of a Saints error. Wyatt Campbell made a stunning diving catch to put the second out on the board when Victor Figueroa hit towards the first base line. Nate Early then hit a two-run home run to advance the score to 12-8. In the bottom of the inning, Drake Harman hit a single to send Griffin Sorrow to third after being hit by a pitch.

In the top of the seventh inning, Nate Earley hit a single to bring in a Buccaneer run to increase their lead to 13-8. The Buccaneers added another run before the half inning ended with a score of 14-8. 

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Cory Filley hit a single to center. Grant Gallagher then hit a two-run home run to decrease the Buccaneers' lead to 14-10.

In the top of the ninth inning, Nate Earley hit a solo home run to put the Bucs up 15-10.

The Saints ended the game with 13 hits while the Buccaneers had 11 hits. The Buccaneers won the single game matchup was 16-10.

Up Next

On Saturday, April 6th, the Saints will travel to Florida Southwestern State in Fort Myers, FL to face the Buccaneers in a doubleheader to finish off the series. The first pitches will be thrown at 12:00PM and 3:00PM EDT.