AVE MARIA, Fla. — Junior Delatorre tossed a seven-inning three-hitter and the University of South Carolina Beaufort baseball team racked up 17 hits in a 12-0 win to open a doubleheader Saturday at Ave Maria, but the Sand Sharks couldn't finish the sweep, allowing a pair of runs in the ninth inning for a 7-6 loss in the finale. 

Delatorre (6-1) struck out nine and did not issue a walk in a dominant performance in the first game, and the Sand Sharks gave him plenty of support. Matt Kianka went 4-for-4, Brandon Joyce was 3-for-4 with four RBIs and Ryan Walker had three hits and two RBIs for USCB. 

USCB (19-21, 9-15 TSC) scored three runs in the third — all unearned — with Ashly Morris, Walker and Joyce collecting RBIs. Korey Ahrens added a two-run double in the third, and the Sand Sharks tacked on three more in the fourth on Erik Armstrong's RBI double and Joyce's two-run single. 

Blake Cilwick and Walker added RBIs in the fifth, JJ Crespo had a sacrifice fly in the sixth and Joyce knocked in another run with a single in the seventh. 

The Sand Sharks also grabbed an early lead in the finale, getting on the board with Cilwick's RBI single in the first and adding to the lead with Ahrens' two-run home run in the second and Kianka's run-scoring double in the fourth. 

The Gyrenes cut the lead in half with Nick Sacchetta's two-run homer in the fourth, but USCB got an RBI infield single from Ahrens in the fifth and an RBI double from Cilwick in the sixth to take a 6-2 lead. 

Ave Maria chipped away with two in the sixth and one in the seventh to cut it to 6-5, and that's where it stood going to the ninth. The Gyrenes loaded the bases with no outs on a walk, a double and an intentional walk, then tied it on James Lesniewski's RBI single and Matt Baux's game-ending sacrifice fly.

The Sand Sharks are a half-game behind Northwood (Fla.) for the sixth and final spot in the Sun Conference Tournament, but USCB holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Seahawks. 

USCB hosts Brewton-Parker for a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Wednesday before traveling to Warner (Fla.) for a three-game Sun Conference series to wrap up the regular season next weekend.