LAKELAND, Fla. - Saint Leo Baseball dropped their first game at Florida Southern on Friday night, 4-1, in Lakeland to fall to 6-4 on the season. 

The Lions were held to three hits on the night after a seven-inning, eight strikeout performance from Florida Southern's Nathan Madej, who got his second win of the season. He gave up one run on two hits in the Moccasins home opener. 

Saint Leo's one run came in the fourth that gave the Lions the lead. Buck Anderson started the inning with a leadoff walk and then moved to second on a sac-bunt from Dylan McDonald. After Sam Crail grounded out moving Anderson to third, Bobby Sparling brought the junior home for his team-leading 15th RBI of the season, which is also good for second most in the conference. 

However, that was the most the Lions would be held to. Saint Leo was able to get two runners on in scoring position in the seventh inning, but they were unable to cash in. The same situation was in the eighth inning, when Eddie Nieman doubled to start the inning, but could not move on from there. 

Florida Southern tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on a RBI single, and then took the lead in the fifth on a balk. The Mocs added their third and fourth runs in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively. 

Jared Beck put together six tough innings of work for Saint Leo in the loss. Beck threw six innings giving up three runs on six hits and punched out seven batters. Drew Rudsinski then came on and threw two innings, giving up just one run on zero hits, while striking out two. 

Saint Leo will now look to bounce back on Saturday afternoon back in Lakeland for game two of the three-game series with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 pm.