WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Campbell baseball will play its first road weekend series of the season when the Fighting Camels travel to William & Mary for a three-game set beginning on Friday, Mar. 8.
Game one is scheduled for a 4 p.m. first pitch at Plumeri Park before game two on Saturday at 2 p.m. The series finale is Sunday, Mar. 10 at 1 p.m.
Campbell (8-4) most recently dropped a midweek contest at Old Dominion, falling by way of a walk-off base hit. Matthew Barefoot launched a 1-0 pitch over the left field wall to push the Camels ahead in the final inning, but the Monarchs responded in the bottom half with an RBI double followed by a bases-loaded RBI single to win 4-3.
Campbell backstop Zach Minnick threw out his Big South-leading fifth base runner at ODU. The senior catcher led the Big South with 22 runners caught stealing a season ago.
Phil Simpson was recently named the Big South Starting Pitcher of the Week. In his first start of the 2019 season, Simpson pitched 5.0 shutout innings, fanning three batters while allowing no walks in Campbell's series finale win over Fairfield.
Luis Gimenez delivered a walk-off RBI-double to lift the Camels to a tenth-inning victory (3-2) over the Fairfield Stags on Friday night/Saturday morning. In Campbell's weekend sweep of the Stags, the Venezuela native went 5-for-13 (.385) with three doubles and a triple. Across Campbell's four games last week, he did not strike out in 19 plate appearances, and has only struck out four times so far this season.
Freshman lefty Ryan Chasse earned Campbell's first quality start of the 2019 season by tossing 6.0 innings against the Fairfield Stags last Saturday. He picked up the win by striking out three and allowing just two runs. The victory moved his record to 2-0, which is the best record for any Campbell starting pitcher this season. He has struck out 13 batters across 15.0 innings so far this season.
The Camels have stolen a conference-high 30 bases, which also is tied for ninth nationally. Campbell's average of 2.50 stolen bases per game also tops the Big South, while coming in at 11th in the nation.
Campbell also leads the Big South in on-base percentage (.379), drawing a conference-best 30 walks and league-best 20 hit by pitches, while accumulating 99 hits (third in league).
William & Mary (9-1) has won its previous six games, which includes a blowout of Norfolk State, a three-game sweep at High Point, a win at ACC member Virginia and victory in the series finale against Sacred Heart.
The Tribe is led offensively by Matt McDermott, the reigning Colonial Athletic Conference Player of the Week. McDermott is batting .417 on the season, and last week went .556 across W&M's four games, which included a 4-for-5 performance at Virginia.
Campbell and William & Mary will meet for the second-straight season as the Camels took two out of three in a series in Buies Creek last year. The Tribe lead the all-time series, 8-7.
Following the weekend, Campbell will host NC Central on Wednesday, Mar. 13 before the Fighting Camels begin Big South play at High Point next weekend. Game one against the HPU Panthers is Friday, Mar. 15 at 5 p.m.
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