HARDEEVILLE – The USCB baseball team rolled to two lopsided victories Friday, beating visiting Fisher (Mass.) 9-1 and 11-0 at Richard Gray Sports Complex.
Senior pitchers John Gora and Jamie Strock put together strong outings, and Matt Kianka, Nick Payne and Brandon Joyce had big days at the plate to power the Sand Sharks, who improved to a program-best 22-3.
Gora (5-0) started the first game and racked up a season-high seven strikeouts while limiting the Falcons to one run and nine hits over eight innings, and Joe Schaffhauser worked a scoreless ninth.
The Sand Sharks scored single tallies in the first and second and broke it open in the third, when Kianka blasted his first homer to right-center and Joyce delivered a two-out, two-run single for a 6-1 lead.
Payne led off the fifth with his team-leading third homer of the season – a drive to dead center – and the Sand Sharks tacked on three in the seventh with two coming on Michael Johnson's two-run double.
Joyce had two hits and two RBIs, Kianka and Payne added two hits and an RBI apiece, and Johnson drove in three runs.
Strock (6-1) also matched his season high with seven strikeouts in game 2, allowing five hits and one walk over six scoreless frames. Eric Ezersky worked around a pair of walks in a scoreless seventh to complete the shutout.
USCB planted four runs in the second, the last two on Thomas Estopare's two-run single to left, and added a run in the third and two in the fourth. Joyce drove a two-run double to left-center in the sixth, and Justin Kortessis added a two-run double down the left-field line one batter later to make it 11-0.
Joyce went 2-for-3 with two runs and three RBIs, and John Cloyd added two hits in the finale.
The four-game, non-conference series concludes with a doubleheader beginning at noon Saturday.