THOMASVILLE, Ga. – The Night Hawk baseball team was swept today at Varnedoe Stadium in their double-header contest against Sun Conference rival USC-Beaufort.  Thomas drops their first TSC home series of the season losing the second game of the series 8-2 and the night cap 7-1.
 
The first game of the day witnessed a flawless pitching performance by USC-Beaufort's starter Jamie Strock.  The right-hander pitched a complete game, striking out six of the 33 Night Hawk batters he faced in his nine innings of work.  Strock surrendered one earned run on eight hits while walking two.
 
USCB led the contest from the first inning of play.  They scored their first run of the game in first frame and then added four more runs in the top of the third.  Designated hitter Zack Holt led the third off with a double down the left field line and later advanced to third on a grounder to short. Holt scored three pitches later when Josh Reinhart hit a chopper up the middle for the second Sand Shark run of the game.  After leadoff hitter Zack Saldivar reached on a walk, shortstop Ashly Morris stepped in and hit a floater over the outreached gloved of TU's Leo Benjamin at third to score Reinhart for the third run of the game.  With the bases loaded, third baseman Michael Johnson plated the fourth and fifth runs of the game with a two-out single to left-center field to put USCB up 5-0 after three innings of play.
 
The Sand Sharks would score three more runs in the game, one in the fifth, sixth, and eighth innings, respectively.  Down, but not out, the Night Hawks would attempt a rally in their final three outs of the contest.  Second baseman Colin Kirkland led the inning off by reaching first on an error by Morris.  Kirkland then advanced to second on a grounder and then moved up 90 feet on failed coverage assignment leaving third base vacant without a defender.  On the next pitch, catcher Braxton Hicks slashed a double to the left-center gap to score Kirkland for the first Night Hawk run of the game, cutting USCB's advantage to 8-1.  After reaching, Hicks received a courtesy runner replacement by Jalbert Melo.  After Jeremy Crosby's rolling chopper bounced into a 5-3 ground out, Melo would score the second and final run for Thomas on a two-out single by Damon Jackson.
 
TU's starter Ben Overman suffered the loss surrendering seven earned runs on 11 hits in his five innings of work.  The right-hander struck out a game high seven batters while walking three of the 24 Sand Sharks faced.
 
Game two started as a pitchers' duel that ended in an offensive tear for the visiting Sand Sharks.  In the top of the first, TU shortstop Jake Desuyo committed an error what would have been the third and final out of the inning. Instead, USCB capitalized on the error scoring the first run of the game.  Johnson hit a single to center to score Johnny Cole from second.  Cole originally hit into the chopper that ended in an error by Desuyo.
 
Thomas responded in the bottom frame to tie the game at 1-1.  Desuyo led the inning off reaching on one of his three walks of game two.  He then advanced to second on a single by right fielder Casey Mannion.  With one out in the inning, catcher Kaleb Holbrook drove in Thomas' lone run of the game with a bloop single to shallow left field.
 
USCB would go on to score the go-ahead run in the top of the third and later add five more runs over the next six innings to pick up the sweep over Thomas with a 7-1 victory. 
 
Thomas drops to 9-10, 3-8 TSC, while USC-Beaufort improves to 19-4, 9-3 TSC, on the year.
 
The Night Hawks return to action on Tues., March 10 when they travel to St. Petersburg, Fla., to face Eckerd College in a single game set.  First pitch is slated for 6:00 p.m.
 
For up-to-date information on this game and other TU Athletics, visit www.TUNightHawks.com.  Stay up-to-date with news, scores, photos, game summaries, and feature stories of your TU baseball team by following them via Twitter at @NightHawkBaseba.