Baseball | 4/26/2002 10:55:00 PM

Box Score SAINT LEO, Fla. -- The Barry University baseball team broke a three-game losing skid bearding the Saint Leo Lions 8-1 earlier tonight in Sunshine State Conference play.

The game started out as a pitchers dual, but in the top of the third inning Joey Apotheker hit a two-run homer to give the Bucs a 2-0 lead. The Lions responded with a solo homer in the bottom of the fourth, but Alex Lorenzo hit a three-run blast to right field giving the Bucs a 5-1 lift in the seventh. The Buccaneers went on to score three more runs in the eighth for the 8-1 victory.

Fernando Tapia (7-5) pitched his third consecutive complete game, while giving up one run on two hits and striking out four. Eric Paone (7-8) took the loss for the Lions after pitching 6.1 innings and giving up five runs on seven Buccaneer hits, while striking out six.

The Bucs were led by Alex Lorenzo who went three-for-five with a homer and three RBI. Joey Apotheker followed with a two-for-five performance with his sixth home run of the season and two RBI.

The Bucs improve to 22-21 overall and 5-11 in the SSC, while the Lions fell to 28-23 and 8-11 in the SSC. Both teams will resume action on Saturday, Apr. 27 for the final two games of the conference series. Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m.