HARDEEVILLE – The USCB baseball team established itself as one of the top contenders in the Sun Conference on Saturday, routing No. 15 Keiser – the defending regular-season conference champion – to take two of three in the key Sun Conference series.
Nick Payne, Kal Davis and Brandon Joyce all smashed two-run homers and Matt Kianka added a pair of two-run doubles to power the Sand Sharks to a 14-4 win in seven innings in the rubber game.
The offensive outburst supported junior right-hander Julio De Pena, who struck out seven and allowed three runs – two earned – over five innings to earn his first win in a USCB uniform.
De Pena was in trouble early, as a pair of two-out errors in the first allowed the Seahawks (7-5, 1-2 TSC) to plate a run and load the bases before De Pena got out of the jam. Keiser threatened again in the second with runners at second and third with one out, but Brandon Joyce snared a sharp liner to third and De Pena struck out reigning Sun Conference Player of the Year Keivan Berges to end the threat.
The Sand Sharks (11-2, 5-1) responded with a two-out rally in the bottom of the inning, as John Cloyd delivered an RBI single and Kianka followed with a two-run double for a 3-1 advantage. Payne launched a two-run blast to right-center in the third – his second homer of the week – to make it 5-1.
USCB broke it open with six runs in the fourth on Kianka's second two-run double of the day and two-run shots to right from Davis and Joyce.
Keiser came back with two runs in the fifth, but Payne's bases-loaded single in the bottom of the inning was misplayed in center field, clearing the bases to make it 14-3.
Berges laced an RBI double to right-center in the seventh, but the Sand Sharks were able to preserve the 10-run spread and invoke the mercy rule.
Payne finished 3-for-3 with a homer, a walk, and four RBIs, while Kianka, Cloyd and Thomas Estopare each added two hits.
The Sand Sharks travel to Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday for a non-conference doubleheader against Edward Waters starting at 1 p.m.
