HIGH POINT, N.C. – No. 14 Campbell is on to the Big South championship game after downing USC Upstate 13-2 in Friday's semifinal. The top-seeded Fighting Camels jumped out to a 7-1 lead and never looked back to down the second-seed at the tournament.
The Championship game is now a 10 a.m. start, pushed up two hours due to the threat of inclement weather tomorrow afternoon. Campbell will face the winner of the nightcap between USC Upstate and Winthrop, who downed Gardner-Webb in 15 innings Friday morning.
Upstate scratched a run across in the first off
Hunter Loyd, which turned out to be all they'd get off the righty. Loyd settled in to toss the next five inning scoreless while Campbell built an insurmountable lead. The senior finished with a line of 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K.
Campbell answered Upstate's run with a seven-spot in the home half of the first, including leading 4-0 before the first out was made. The first two scored on free passes with the bases loaded before
Lawson Harrill gapped a two-run double.
Dalen Thompson added a two-run single before the frame ended with Campbell sending 12 to the plate.
Lawson Harrill set the tone early, with a pair of nice plays in right field along with two doubles in the first two innings.
The Camels tacked on three more in the second with an RBI single from Harrill and a double from
Grant Knipp to go up 10-1.
Chandler Riley drove in another with an RBI single in the sixth.
Logan Jordan capped Campbell's scoring with a two-run home run to left in the seventh.
Wiley Hartley and
Jeremy Wiegman worked the last three innings of the ballgame in relief, with Hartley striking out three in his two innings of work.
Harrill finished 4-5 with three RBI and three runs. Arnold, Halstead, and Riley all had two hits each, and Jordan scored three times.
Campbell reaches the conference championship game for the fifth straight year, and will need to be beaten twice tomorrow to be kept from a second-straight league title.
First pitch is set for 10 a.m. and will be broadcast on ESPNU.
