LAKELAND, Fla. — The University of South Carolina Beaufort baseball team split a doubleheader with Sun Conference rival Southeastern on Friday, winning the opener 5-3 before falling 5-4 in the nightcap. 

The Sand Sharks (27-16, 13-10 TSC) jumped out early and held on in the first game, and they rallied from a three-run deficit to tie it with two runs in the ninth in the second game before the Fire pushed across the tying run in the bottom of the inning. 

Junior Delatorre (7-2) pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing three runs and 11 hits, to earn the win in Game 1, while Blake Drew worked out of a jam in the seventh and pitched two more scoreless frames for his school-record eighth save. Ashly Morris went 4-for-5 with three RBIs and Kyle Thompson had two hits and an RBI to pace the offense. 

USCB was blanked for seven innings in the nightcap and fell behind 3-0, but the Sand Sharks rallied. Alex Bonilla's infield single brought home a run and John Cloyd was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in another before the Fire got out of the jam. Southeastern added a tally in the eighth to make it 4-2, but Josh Reinhart's infield single drove in a run and Michael Johnson's sacrifice fly tied it before Josiel Colon's sacrifice fly in the ninth gave the Fire the win. 

Morris went 3-for-5, giving him an NAIA-best 76 hits this season, two shy of Spencer Jackson's school mark set in 2011. 

The rubber game of the three-game series is scheduled for noon Saturday with the winner taking over fourth place in the Sun Conference standings.