BUIES CREEK — Junior catcher Zach Minnick tied a season-high with four RBIs as Campbell completed a Big South Conference baseball sweep over Gardner-Webb with a 12-1 victory Sunday afternoon at Jim Perry Stadium.
Campbell (13-11, 6-0 Big South) has won nine of its last 11 games and has swept back-to-back Big South series for the first time since 2014, when the Camels rattled off six straight against Presbyterian and UNC Asheville (April 4-13, 2014). The 6-0 record in conference play ties CU’s best start to Big South action since 2012.
True freshman Brandon Jenkins (1-0) picked up the first win of his collegiate career, tossing seven complete innings for the Camels. The righty from Glendora, N.J. tied his career-high with seven strikeouts and held the Bulldogs to one run on two hits.
GWU sophomore Isaac Campbell (2-3) took the loss as the lefty gave up four earned runs over three innings pitched.
Minnick (3-for-5) drove in four runs to lead the Camels offensively, collecting his seventh multi-hit performance of the season. Matthew Barefoot also logged three hits for Campbell, while Christian Jones (2-for-4, 2 RBIs), Jeff Hahs (2-for-5) and Kevin Barron (2-for-3, 2 RBIs) each notched multi-hit games for CU.
The Camels did not strike out as a team. It was the first Campbell had accomplished that feat since April 21, 2009 in an 18-0 win over N.C. Central.
Campbell got on the board first with two runs in the bottom of the second. Barron collected the first RBI of the day on a soft grounder down the first base line, scoring Hahs. Bryce Myers drove the next one in on a groundout to the second baseman as Joe Zirolli came home.
Gardner-Webb (13-13, 1-5 Big South) scored its only run of the game in the top of the third on a single to center from Eric Jones to score Taber Mongero.
The Camels took a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the third as Minnick’s double went over the right fielder’s head, scoring Jones and Barefoot. That score would hold until the bottom of the eighth, when the Camels erased any doubt with an eight-run frame.
In Campbell’s half of the eighth, 14 batters stepped up to the plate as CU posted eight runs on seven hits. Barefoot and Jones started the Camels off with back-to-back RBI doubles, then Minnick drove Jones home with a single to center. Minnick scored on a wild pitch for Campbell’s fourth run of the inning before Barron plated Zirolli on a knock to right center.
Myers scored CU’s 10th run, after Luis Gimenez successfully stole second on a bad throw by the Gardner-Webb catcher. Jones drew a bases-loaded walk for CU’s seventh run of the inning, then Minnick capped it off with an RBI single to make it 12-1.
Logan Bender and Allan Winans each made one-inning relief appearances for the Camels. Bender surrendered just one hit in the top of the eighth, while Winans sat the Bulldogs down in order to close it out in the ninth.
The Camels host UNC Wilmington on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
(Campbell media services provided the basis for this report)
