ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—The Barry Buccaneers built a big lead, then held off a furious rally in the ninth inning to defeat the Eckerd College Tritons 9-7 in the first game of a Sunshine State Conference baseball series at the Turley Athletic Complex Friday night.

The Buccaneers (30-20, 8-11 SSC) struck for two runs in the opening inning, as Fausto Faraldo's RBI single scored Jerry Thornton. Faraldo also worked the back end of a double steal, helping Cesar Aranguren come around to score. Patrick Bordieri nailed Faraldo at the plate with a perfect throw from center field after Brian Lima singled to keep the damage to a minimum.

Bobby Hartney scored in the fifth inning after reaching on a bunt and stealing second. He scored on a ground ball by Alex Meneses to increase the lead to 3-0. Brian Lima smacked a solo homer in the sixth, his fifth of the season to make it 4-0.

The Bucs blew the game open in the ninth inning, sending 10 men to the plate and scoring five runs. David San Juan led off with a double and scored a run, while Lima added a two-run single as the Bucs took advantage of two Triton errors.

Alex Gonzalez (8-3) faced the minimum through five innings, tossing eight shutout innings, allowing two hits and three walks, while tying his career high with 12 strikeouts.

The Tritons (15-30, 4-15 SSC) rallied for seven runs in the ninth inning, loading the bases off reliever Eric Flynn with one out. Ryan Searage delivered a bases-clearing triple and scored on a groundout by Tony Menendez. After a pair of errors, Jason Recore delivered an RBI single and later came around on another error. With the tying run at the plate, reliever Jesse Naber induced pinch hitter Phil Bruno to fly out to left field to earn his second save.

Joe Sinicola (2-5) took the loss for the Tritons, allowing four runs on six hits and four walks, striking out seven.

Thornton and Lima each recorded three hits to lead the Bucs, while Lima added three RBI.

The start of the game was delayed 1:16 due to a scheduling conflict with the umpires.

The series concludes on Saturday with a doubleheader starting at 1:00 pm.

Barry 9, Eckerd 7 (04/29/2005 at St. Petersburg, Fla.)
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Barry............... 200 011 005 - 9 11 3 (30-20, 8-11 SSC)
Eckerd.............. 000 000 007 - 7 6 4 (15-30, 4-15 SSC)
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Pitchers: Barry - Gonzalez; Flynn(9); Naber(9). Eckerd - Sinicola; Chapman(7).
Win-Gonzalez(8-3) Save-Naber(2) Loss-Sinicola(2-5) T-3:08 A-153
HR BUB - Lima (5).