Baseball | 2/20/2004 8:12:00 PM

Box Score MELBOURNE – The Barry University baseball team opened their 2004 Sunshine State Conference schedule by trouncing the Florida Tech Panther 11-3 at earlier today at Andy Seminick-Les Hall Field.

The Panthers (4-7, 0-1 SSC) jumped out in front early, scoring one in the bottom half of the first, however, the Bucs quickly responded by scoring four runs in the second on a two-run homerun to right-field by Keith Barton and back-to-back RBI singles to left by Alex Meneses and Brian Lima.

The Bucs (8-2, 1-0 SSC) then added to their lead in the third when Jerry Thornton plated two more runs on an RBI single up the middle scoring Carlos de la Osa, who led off the inning with a single, and Ricky Sanchez who had reached on an error by the second-baseman. Then in the fourth Sanchez delivered the Bucs seventh run with an RBI double down the left-field line and Thornton extended the Bucs lead to 9-1 recording his third and fourth RBI of the game with his third hit.

The Bucs then added one more in the fifth on Lima's third homerun of the season over the right-field wall and a final run in the seventh. The Panthers scored single runs in the seventh and eighth, however, it was not enough as the Bucs held on for the 11-3 win.

Bucs starter Alex Gonzalez was again stellar on the mound picking up his third win of the season pitching seven innings and giving up just one earned run, while striking out two. With the win Gonzalez improves to 3-0 on the year.

Thornton led the Bucs offensively with three hits and four RBI, while Lima, de la Osa and Sanchez recorded two hits apiece. Lima and Barton also had two RBI each.

The Bucs and Panthers will complete this three-game series with a doubleheader tomorrow afternoon beginning at 12:00 pm

Barry 11, Florida Tech 3 (02/20/2004 at Melbourne, Fla.)
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Barry............... 042 310 100 - 11 13 4 (8-2, 1-0 SSC)
Florida Tech........ 100 000 110 - 3 7 4 (4-7, 0-1 SSC)
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Pitchers: Barry - Gonzalez; Penna(8). Florida Tech - D'Esposito; Sawyer(3); Danca(5); Brock(6).
Win-Gonzalez(3-0) Loss-D'Esposito(0-3) T-2:37 A-94
HR BUB - Lima; Barton.
D'Esposito faced 3 batters in the 3rd.
Game: BB220