BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Campbell swept the weekend for the second straight series with an 11-6 win over USC Upstate Sunday afternoon at Jim Perry Stadium. Four home runs accounted for eight of the Camels' 11 runs on the afternoon.
The win improves the Camels to 18-12 overall and 8-1 in Big South play, leaving them sitting alone in the top spot. Upstate drops to 18-14, 7-5 in league play.
Clinging to a two-run lead in the bottom of the eighth,
Drew Winters blew the game open with a two-out grand slam to straight-away center in the bottom of the eighth to give the Camels an 11-4 lead and lock in the series sweep.
Of Winter's three hits on the season, one is a game winning ninth-inning three-run home run, and his latest was today's clutch grand slam.
Zach Neto wasted no time putting the Camels on the board early, sending the first pitch he saw out to left field for a two-run blast in the bottom of the first inning. Neto had Campbell's only multi-hit day, but eight Camels did hit safely today, and every Camel that had an at-bat reached safely.
Upstate retook the lead in the third after a two-run home run and a wild put the Spartans ahead 3-2.
The Camels then slowly built the lead for good with one run in each the fourth through seventh innings. Neto drove in another with an RBI single while
Ty Babin and
Drake Pierson both hit solo shots through those innings.
Waldy Arias provided the first of Campbell's five eighth-inning insurance runs with a perfect squeeze bunt that helped set up the Winters grand slam.
Aaron Rund turned in a quality start to earn his second win of the season. The righty tossed 6.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 Ks on the afternoon.
Ty Cummings earned the three-inning save during his relief outing.
Upstate's Trey Miller was tagged with the loss.
Campbell has now scored double-digit runs in four consecutive games and has scored 108 runs in just the last eight games, good for 13.5 per game during the stretch. Campbell is also averaging 12.5 runs/game in the nine conference games so far while batting .346 as a team.
Campbell begins a five-game road trip beginning Tuesday at Duke. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. Another Big South series at NC A&T awaits before rounding out the stretch at North Carolina the following week.
