BUIES CREEK, N.C. — Campbell's pitching staff earned its second shutout of the season and the Fighting Camel bats went a combined .361 at the plate as the CU took the series opener from Charleston Southern, 14-0, on Friday night at Jim Perry Stadium.
Michael Horrell, Zach Adams and Thomas Coggburn struck out a collective eight batters, while allowing just one walk and four this. Horrell pitched the first seven innings to earn his seventh win of the season, improving his overall record to 7-2 and his Big South mark to 6-1. The senior righty from Winston-Salem struck out five.
Charleston Southern starter Jaret Bennett (2-5) suffered the loss, allowing five runs, four earned on five hits in his one inning of work.
Grant Harris logged his first three-hit outing as a Fighting Camel with a 3-for-4 performance on a pair of doubles, a single; he also drove in a run. Zach Minnick also had a multi-hit game, his sixth of the season, going 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI.
Matthew Barefoot went 2-for-4 and drove in three runs for his 16th multi-hit game and eighth multi-RBI game of the season. The redshirt-junior hit a leadoff home run the bottom of the fifth, good for his ninth dinger of 2019, 25th of his career, moving him into a tie for tenth all-time in the Campbell record books.
AJ Hrica drove in four runs for the second time this season, going 2-for-4 on the night with a pair of two-run singles. Koby Collins was the fourth Camel to log multiple RBI, driving in two on his two-run double in the first inning.
Collin Wolf, Spencer Packard and Marcus Skundrich collected a single apiece, rounding out Campbell's 14 hits on the night.
The Camels pushed across five runs on five hits, including a home run and a double, in the bottom of the first. Just two pitches into the game, Barefoot put the Camels ahead by one by launching a 1-0 pitch over the left-field wall. The next three batters – Hrica, Luis Gimenez and Packard – reached on a hit by pitch, error and single, respectively, loading the bases with no outs.
Wolf, Campbell's RBI leader, went down on strikes, but Collins picked him up with a two-run base hit down the left-field line. Just two pitches later, Harris kept the scoring going with an RBI double over the right fielder's head to push across Packard.
With Collins on third and one away, Minnick placed a squeeze bunt down the first-base line to score Collins. Campbell's five-run first inning was the Fighting Camels' highest run production in the opening inning of play this season, besting the four runs they put up at High Point on March 18.
Campbell upped its lead to 14-0 by scoring two in the third, four in the fifth and three in the sixth.
In the bottom of the third, Hrica lined a two-out, two-run single up the middle to score Minnick and Waldy Arias.
In the fifth, after Harris stole two bases and then scored on an error, Barefoot also scored Minnick and Arias on a two-run single, moving Campbell's advantage to double-digits, 10-0. Barefoot scored two batters later on Gimenez' sacrifice fly.
Minnick's RBI double and Hrica's two-run single drove in Campbell's final three runs in the sixth.
Campbell was hit by five pitches from the CSU pitching staff, moving CU's season hit-by-pitch total to 81, which ranks top-5 nationally.
Game 2 between the Fighting Camels and Buccaneers is scheduled for Saturday, May 4 at 3 p.m.
