HARDEEVILLE — The University of South Carolina Beaufort softball team rang up two more mercy-rule victories Sunday, beating visiting Montreat 8-0 and 9-1 at Richard Gray Sports Complex. 

The 24th-ranked Sand Sharks (4-0) have won their first four games by a combined 35-3 score and none of the four have gone the full seven innings. 

Ashlie Layman (2-0) racked up nine strikeouts in a one-hitter in the five-inning opener. She walked three and surrendered only an infield single in the third. 

The Sand Sharks took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on RBI singles from Taylor Triplett and Mariaha Sanborn and broke it open with a five-run fourth sparked by Shelby Zipperer's solo homer and Triplett's two-run triple. 

Sam Boland, the first of nine seniors to be honored on separate home dates throughout the season, capped the victory with a blast to left leading off the fifth to invoke the eight-run rule. 

Triplett went 3-for-3 with two runs and three RBIs and Brianna Kelnhofer was 2-for-2 and scored a run to lead the offense. 

Montreat (0-4) grabbed an early lead in the nightcap with an unearned run in the first, but Triplett answered with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning. The Sand Sharks tacked on three runs in the second when Amber Williams beat out an infield single for an RBI and scored from second on a wild pitch, crossing the plate behind Missy Hughes. 

Haley Brown's RBI triple to right made it 5-1 in the third and Maddie Byrd and Triplett added sacrifice flies in the fourth to make it 7-1. USCB ended it early with two runs in the sixth, as Zipperer drove home one with a sacrifice fly and Hughes scooted home on a passed ball. 

Kristy Cook (2-0) allowed one unearned run on three hits and a walk over five innings, striking out six, and freshman Allie Rogers worked a 1-2-3 sixth. Hughes went 3-for-3 and scored three runs and Triplett had a pair of RBIs. 

The Sand Sharks won't play another home game until March 13, traveling to Brewton-Parker on Friday and Coastal Georgia on Feb. 20 before playing in consecutive tournaments — the NFCA NAIA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Ga., from Feb. 27-March 1 and the Gulf Coast Invitational in Gulf Shores, Ala., from March 6-8. 

NOTES: Zipperer became USCB's all-time leader with 114 runs scored, passing Katie Rietkovich. … Cook has 399 career strikeouts. … USCB pitchers have held opponents to a .203 batting average and allowed only one extra-base hit.