January 24, 2026
Bucs Pick Up Opening Day Sweep
The #3 Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers put on a show in their 2026 season openers on Saturday, sweeping the #21 Lake Land Lakers by scores of 7-5 and 15-3 behind a grand return from Jonah St. Antoine who finished the day 4-4 and grand debuts from Bishop Quarles and Nick April-Gath who combined to go 8-8 with 6 RBIs in the Bucs game two win.
FORT MYERS, Fla.- The #3 Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers put on a show in their 2026 season openers on Saturday, sweeping the #21 Lake Land Lakers by scores of 7-5 and 15-3 behind a grand return from Jonah St. Antoine who finished the day 4-4 and grand debuts from Bishop Quarles and Nick April-Gath who combined to go 8-8 with 6 RBIs in the Bucs game two win.
In game one Cole Greer got the Bucs off to a good start, firing a 1-2-3 top half of the 1st inning and pitching around a leadoff double in the 2nd to finish his two inning outing scoreless, but the Bucs offense couldn't get anything going either as the game went to the 3rd scoreless.
FSW finally broke through in the 4th as Aiden Talarico laced a two out, two run double to right center to get the Bucs on the board and it opened the floodgates for the Purple and Aqua as Greg Caban singled through the left side, the Bucs added a fourth run on a Laker error, and Cris Walley legged out an infield single to make it 6-0 Bucs in the blink of an eye.
Lake Land answered back with a crooked number of their own in their next at bats, using a pair of sacrifice flies and a two out triple to get right back into the game at 6-5.
The Bucs continued their two out magic into the bottom of the 5th as Keenan Jabeth ripped a single through the left side to drive home a run and give FSW some breathing room as they made it a 7-5 ballgame.
Nick April-Gath flashed the leather with a double play to end the top of the 6th for the Bucs and Nicholas Lorenz took it from there, nailing down his first save of the year with a round about 1-2-3 bottom of the 7th to close out a 7-5 win for the Bucs.
Jonah St. Antoine went 2-2 in his return to the Bucs lineup while Walley and Caban each had 2 hits and an RBI in their FSW debuts. Greer and Elliot Sande each threw two scoreless innings on the mound for the Bucs with Sande earning the win out of the FSW bullpen. Lorenz notched his first save of the year with 2 1/3 scoreless frames to finish things off.
The Bucs didn't wait around in game two to get the scoring going as St. Antoine singled two batters into the game to drive home a run and Talarico launched a three run home run off the batting cages in left to quickly give FSW a 4-0 lead after one inning of action.
Lake Land put traffic on in the bases in the 2nd but a Bucs double play ended the threat and kept FSW in front 4-0.
After batting around in the first, the top of the Bucs order was at it again in the 2nd as Bishop Quarles legged out a hustle double to start the frame and St. Antoine continued his perfect day with an RBI single through the right side to bump the lead to 5-0 before Caban lifted a sac fly later in the frame to up the FSW advantage to 6-0 at the end of two.
A hit batter and back to back two out walks allowed Lake Land to get on the board in the 3rd but the Bucs answered right back with another Quarles knock to bring home a pair and a two out RBI triple from Evan Taveras to make it 9-1 FSW after three complete.
Each side got a pair of runs in the 5th to make it 11-3 and the Bucs finished the game off in grand fashion in the 6th as Quarles came up with the bases loaded and one out and launched his first FSW home run up and out the other way to kick in the run rule and walk it off as the Bucs took game two 15-3 to complete the sweep.
Quarles and April-Gath each finished 4-4 in the win while Quarles accounted for 10 runs with 6 driven in and 4 scored while April-Gath scored twice and stole two bases. Robert Mitchell was the beneficiary of the early offense, going two scoreless frames to begin the game to earn the win while Judd Hildreth and Sterling Bass each posted scoreless innings out of the bullpen for FSW.
The Bucs win their season opener for the first time since 2022 as they start the 2026 campaign 2-0 while Lake Land starts 0-2 coming off of their best season in program history in 2025.
FSW will have Sunday off before returning to the field Sunday at the Sunshine Showdown when they take on #8 Florence-Darlington in an NJCAA Top 10 early season matchup beginning at 1 PM at Buccaneers Park in Fort Myers.