TAMPA - It was all Kyle Eastham Saturday night as the University of South Florida cruised through game three of the weekend series, completing the sweep of Florida A&M with a 6-0 win over the Rattlers Saturday evening at the USF Baseball Stadium.

Making his first start since 2008, the senior from Riverview, Fla pitched seven innings of shutout ball, while accumulating a career-high 11 strikeouts. He allowed only four hits and did not walk a single batter.

"Hats off to the guys getting the big hits with two outs today, and all-weekend long as well," said Eastham. "The pitching staff did great as a whole. Everybody from top to bottom has done their job getting outs, throwing strikes and that's the key to giving our hitters a chance."

Behind Eastham, the Bulls rallied up six runs to help put away the Rattlers in the series finale.

It was the fourth quality start in a row that USF has seen from its pitching staff in the past week and the first win of the season for Eastham who came into the game with a 2.57 ERA in seven innings of work.

"Chuck's (Hernandez) done a great job with those guys mentally," said Coach Prado, following the sweep. "Chuck's a real patient coach and it's worked for those two guys (Eastham and Gonzalez). If we keep getting that kind of pitching, we'll be a great team down the stretch."

Florida A&M was shut out twice by USF, the first coming in senior ace Randy Fontanez's eight-inning, eight-strikeout performance on Friday.

In the bottom of the fifth inning tonight, the Bulls loaded up the bases with no outs and scored four runs to take a commanding 6-0 lead.  Todd Brazeal singled to right center to drive in two and freshman James Ramsay followed with an RBI single to extend the Bulls lead.

Junior Andrew Longley wrapped up the scoring for the Bulls in the fifth with a two-out single down the left field line to score Brazeal.

By going 2-for-3 with a career-high 3 RBI on the night, Ramsay wraps a solid weekend. In three games, he went 6-for-9 with five RBI and two runs scored in the series. He has had at least one hit in five straight games.

Senior Junior Carlin continued to establish his role as the dual-threat guy for the Bulls as he relieved Eastham in the eighth, and struck out the side. Carlin also walked and scored a run in the game and went 3-for-11 in the weekend series with four RBI and four runs scored.

"I actually love it," said Carlin in regards to doing it all on the field. "I wish that that happened every time. I love playing in the outfield and then pitching in the eighth or ninth. I did it in high school and I want to keep doing it here."

Since Carlin has been performing well in every aspect of the game, Coach Prado might be afraid to mess with a good thing.

"He's such a competitor," said Prado. "Really, if we let him pitch all the time, he'd be one of our top pitchers."

With Saturday night's win, the Bulls are now 5-5 and have won four straight contests.

Next up, USF will have a short turnaround and host a pair of mid-week games. First up, the Bulls will host Florida Gulf Coast on Tuesday at 7 p.m. followed by a visit from No. 1 Florida on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

USF will then remain home for a weekend series against Evansville with the first game on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. followed by a doubleheader on Saturday, beginning at 4:00 p.m.

Game Notes
Tonight's game was played in 1:55, the fastest in 2011... The series sweep is the first since the Bulls swept Georgetown in 2010... It is the first doubleheader sweep since the finale of the 2010 regular season when the Bulls swept Pitt on 5/20/10... USF outscored FAMU, 24-4, on the weekend... The start for Eastham was his first since 2008... Eastham's 11 strikeouts are a career high and 7.0 innings is the longest outing of his career... USF starting pitching combined to throw 21.0 scoreless innings... USF starting pitching did not walk a batter on the weekend... Sam Mende's three-hit outing is the second of the season and 15^th of his career... Since moving to the leadoff spot in game two of the Elon series, Jonathan Koscso is hitting .375 with an on-base percentage of .500... USF is 5-1 since Koscso moved into the leadoff spot... With a first-inning single, Koscso extended his hit streak to seven games... He has hit safely in 9-of-10 games so far in 2011... James Ramsay has hit safely in five straight games... In his last four games, he is 7-for-11 with six RBI... Three RBI tonight was a career high for Ramsay.