LAKE WALES, Fla. – The USCB baseball team put together two ninth-inning rallies but could only come away with one victory Friday, splitting a Sun Conference doubleheader at Warner. 

The Sand Sharks scored two runs in the ninth inning of the opener before losing 6-5 in the bottom of the frame, but Nick Payne's ninth-inning grand slam lifted USCB to a 6-2 victory in the nightcap. The finale of the three-game series is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday. 

USCB led 3-0 in game one, as Dylan Yankle's run-scoring groundout opened the scoring in the second, Brandon Joyce scored on a wild pitch in the fifth, and a throwing error brought home a run in the sixth. The Royals put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the sixth, though, as Tomas Rivera and Taran Tipton came up with back-to-back one-out singles to tie it. 

Warner took its first lead an inning later, when Broderick Rodocker lifted a sacrifice fly to center and a second run came home on an errant throw. 

The Sand Sharks rallied to tie it in the ninth when Kal Davis laced an RBI triple to right-center and scored on Joyce's RBI single one batter later, but the Royals loaded the bases against Blake Drew (3-1) and the Rodocker drove in the winning run with his second sacrifice fly of the game.

After USCB took an early lead in game two on Thomas Estopare's RBI groundout in the first, the Royals moved ahead 2-1 with a pair of runs in the third. Jamie Strock (9-3) was dominant from that point forward, though, retiring 16 straight batters until Randy Rodriguez singled with two out in the eighth and was promptly caught stealing by Yankle. 

The Sand Sharks tied it on Justin Kortessis' sacrifice fly in the fourth, and USCB loaded the bases with one out in the ninth before Payne blasted a shot to right. 

The Royals loaded the bases against Kortessis in the ninth, but he induced a game-ending double play to seal the win.