Ft. Myers, FL

Santa Fe traveled to Florida SouthWestern State College for the first of a best-of-three game series Friday. The Saints lost Game 1 of the series and will look to bounce back on Saturday at 1:00PM EDT versus the Bucs to force the rubber match game on Sunday. The game was tied until the bottom of the fourth when FSW put three runs on the board. The Saints were unable to respond with the bats and were outhit by four hits.

Matthew Jenkins started on the mound for the Saints and takes the loss. He went five innings while striking out four but gave up four runs, two of which were earned. The Saints bats collected three hits off FSW starter, Landon Burch, but were unable to push any runs across until the ninth inning. Cory Filley was a bright spot for the Saints as he went 2-for-4 with two hits. FSW was able to collectively strikeout the Saints 11 times and only surrended one run to the Saints.

The Saints won every series matchup on the season with Citrus Conference teams in which they won Game 1. On the other hand, the Saints won half of their series matchups when they lost Game 1 against Citrus Conference foes. The Saints in fact won the series versus conference champion Indian River. FSW won the Citrus Conference series match versus the Saints and finished second in the conference, but the Saints beat the Bucs in a non-conference matchup in late January.  The Saints will look to even the FCSAA regional matchup series with a win against FSW tomorrow at 1PM EDT to force the Game 3 on Sunday.