HIGH POINT, N.C. – Campbell captured its sixth-ever Big South tournament championship and punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament by sweeping a doubleheader Saturday against Charleston Southern in High Point, N.C. After a loss on Thursday, Campbell reeled off four wins in two days to claim the crown, doing so with 10-6 and 3-2 victories on Saturday.
Zach Neto was named Tournament MVP, alongside
Jarrod Belbin,
Waldy Arias,
Connor Denning,
Cade Kuehler and
Ty Cummings all being named to the all-tournament team.
Neto batted .438 with six RBIs on the week, including a mammoth two-run blast in the first inning of the final game. He also pitched the final 1.2 innings against USC Upstate Friday night to earn a save.
This team now joins 1988, 1990, 2014, 2018 and 2019 as the program's tournament champs.
The two wins took Campbell to 40-17 on the year, the fist 40-win season since 2014.
Game One Recap – Campbell 10-6
Campbell jumped out to a 6-1 lead after one inning and never looked back. After a wild pitch scored a quick run,
Connor Denning took one dead-center off the batter's eye to give the Camels an early cushion. Halstead would later score in the inning on a wild pitch.
Buccaneer miscues were a big boost for the Camels. Of the 10 runs scored, only five were via RBI, with five more scoring on wild pitches or CSU errors.
The first-inning offensive production was nearly all the offense Campbell needed getting strong pitching from
Cade Boxrucker and
Ty Cummings. Boxrucker worked 4.0+ allowing just two earned runs. He ran into trouble in the fifth, loading the bases with nobody out, but Cummings cleaned things up beautifully, getting a strikeout and 6-3 double play to escape.
Cummings was solid the rest of the way, allowing four runs over the next five innings. He had to work hard and left multiple runners stranded in the sixth, eighth and ninth.
Campbell rounded out the scoring with two wild pitches in the third, and a bases loaded walk and sac fly in the eighth.
Denning,
Logan Jordan and
Dalen Thompson all had two-hit games for the Camels. Campbell had just nine hits in the game, but was walked 11 times.
Zach Neto saw his 29-game hit streak come to an end, but not without production at the dish. Neto finished 0-1, was walked three times, drove in a run, and scored.
Game Two Recap – Campbell 3-2
Neto wasted no time starting a new hit streak in the winner-take-all game, blasting a two-run shot out of the stadium in the first inning. That turned out to be nearly all of Campbell's offense in the low-scoring affair.
The only other Campbell run scored on a squeeze bunt put down by
Lawson Harrill in the fifth inning. Beyond that, Campbell had opportunity but left eight on base in the game.
The Campbell pitching staff stepped up again in the second game to hold the Bucs to just two runs on six hits.
Aaron Rund made a start for the second day in a row and turned in 5.1 innings, allowing just two runs and striking out a season-high eight.
After Rund loaded the bases in the sixth,
Jake Murray picked him up and escaped with just one run across to preserve the Campbell lead. The following frame Murray and Garrett Kangas found themselves in trouble, and it was
Cade Kuehler who came in and made arguably the biggest play of the day starting a 1-2-3 inning-ending double play.
Cameron O'Brien was lights out in the final two innings, as he did not allow a base runner and struck out two in the ninth to earn the save.
Bryce Arnold made his first start since Mar. 29 and didn't miss a beat, going 3-4 on the day.
Up Next
The Camels now await their NCAA regional destination. The 16 regional host sites will be announced Sunday at 8:30 pm. The full NCAA Selection show to determine Campbell's next stop is set for Monday at noon on ESPN2.
