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HARDEEVILLE, S.C. – The University of South Carolina Beaufort softball team used an offensive outburst to protect its home field Monday, pounding 12 hits in a 13-5 win over Cumberland (Tenn.) on the first day of the NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round USC Beaufort Bracket at Richard Gray Sports Complex.

Mariaha Sanborn went 2-for-3 with a homer, two runs scored and three RBIs and Taylor Triplett was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored to pace the ninth-ranked Sand Sharks (42-4), who advanced to play No. 15 Spring Hill (Ala.) at 11 a.m. Tuesday in a winner's bracket matchup.

Every USCB starter had a hit or scored a run, as the Sand Sharks scored 11 runs in the first three innings and ended the game after six innings because of the eight-run mercy rule.

Triplett doubled in a run and scored on CJ Browder's RBI double in the first to give USCB an early lead, only to see Jessica Roper erase it with a two-run homer in the top of the second. The deadlock didn't last long, as Missy Hughes doubled home two runs and scored on Katie Rietkovich's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second to give USCB a 5-2 advantage.

The Sand Sharks broke it open with six in the third – half of them coming on Sanborn's three-run blast to left. The Bulldogs (36-21) rallied for three in the fifth to avoid the mercy-rule ending once, but USCB pushed across two in the sixth to end it early.

USCB's Kristy Cook (21-0) allowed two runs on three hits over five innings for the win, while Cumberland's Courtney Maynard (19-10) was tagged with the loss after being charged with five runs (four earned) over two innings.

Roper was 2-for-2 with three RBIs for Cumberland, which drops into an elimination game against Virginia Intermont at 2 p.m. Tuesday.