FORT MEYERS, FL-The second seeded USCB baseball team went down to defeat 17-4 to St. Thomas in their first game of the Sun Conference Tournament on Sunday at City of Palms Park in Fort Meyers. The loss puts the Sand Sharks in the loser's bracket in the double elimination tournament to determine the Sun Conference Champion. USCB will now play Florida Memorial on Monday morning at 11:00 a.m. Florida Memorial lost a 14 inning game to regular season champion Embry Riddle on Sunday.
 
St. Thomas got to Sand Shark starter Adam Miller early scoring three runs in the first inning and two more in the second frame to grab a quick 5-0 lead. The Sand Sharks battled back to score a single run in the third as David O'Neil scored on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Collins. Gabe Torres scored the second USCB run on a fielder's choice in the fifth frame.
 
The Sand Sharks scored their final two runs of the game in the top of the sixth frame as DeShontay Berry scored on a wild pitch and Torres scored on a Brett Wheeler single. St. Thomas pitchers Danny Sanchez and Michael Arostegui held the Sand Sharks to only seven hits. Spencer Jackson had two of the USCB's hits.
 
St. Thomas continued to score runs after their initial outburst as they scored five more runs in the fourth inning, one in the fifth and another six runs in the sixth frame. Their 17 runs were aided by 21 hits against a trio of Sand Shark pitchers. Stephen Merino and Victor Madrazo each had four hits for St. Thomas while Nestor Rincon had three hits and six runs batted in for the Bobcats. 

Miller lost his first game of the year for USCB. Andrew Barrineau and Jorge Olmo also saw action on the mound for USCB.