HARDEEVILLE — The University of South Carolina Beaufort softball team made quick work of a team that received votes in the NAIA Softball Coaches' Preseason Top 25 Poll on Sunday, notching two 8-0 mercy-rule victories over visiting Virginia Intermont at Richard Gray Sports Complex. 

The 12th-ranked Sand Sharks outhit the Cobras 23-4 in the doubleheader as they ran their winning streak to four games and improved to 6-0 at home. USCB's pitching staff continued its dominance, lowering its team ERA to 2.46 with its second and third shutouts of the season. The Sand Sharks have allowed only two hits in each of their last four games. 

USCB jumped on starter Lauren Smith early in the opener, scoring twice in the first on Chelsey Blasingame's RBI double and Mariaha Sanborn's run-scoring single and tacking on two more on Blasingame's two-run single in the second. Shelby Zipperer added a sacrifice fly in the third before Sanborn cleared the bases with a single into the gap in right-center to invoke the mercy rule in the sixth. 

Kristy Cook (5-0) held the Cobras to two hits over five scoreless frames, striking out six, and Caitlin Campbell struck out one in a perfect sixth. 

Sanborn paced the offense, as the reigning Sun Conference Player of the Week went 3-for-4 with four RBIs. Blasingame was 2-for-4 with three RBIs, and Missy Hughes, Alexandria Simmons, Taylor Triplett and Sammi Shaffren each added two hits.

The second game followed a similar script, as Sanborn singled home a run in the first to start an offensive outpouring for the Sand Sharks. 

Zipperer blasted a two-run homer to left in the second and Maddie Byrd followed with a grand slam in the fourth to turn it into another rout. Sam Boland's sacrifice fly in the fourth put the mercy-rule into play, and the Cobras went quietly in the fifth to end it.

Campbell (1-1) got the start and picked up where she left off in closing out the first game, striking out three and allowing two hits over four innings. Ashlie Layman worked around a leadoff walk in the fifth to finish it off.

USCB continues its home stand Thursday, hosting Brenau (Ga.) for a doubleheader at 2 p.m.