NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Campbell held Charleston Southern scoreless over the final seven innings, retiring 22 of the last 25 batters faced on the way to a 4-3 baseball win Friday night at CSU Ballpark.

It was the opening game in Big South Conference play for both clubs.

Senior right-hander Wes Noble (2-2) earned the win for the Camels, holding the Buccaneers to three runs on three hits over six innings. Tyson Messer of Harnett Central posted his third save of the season as he kept CSU off the board in the bottom of the ninth.

Redshirt freshman Logan Bender from Triton put on a show for CU, striking out five of six batters across two hitless, scoreless innings of relief.

Charleston Southern’s Nik Constantakos (2-3) took the loss, allowing all four of Campbell’s runs on seven hits.

Campbell (8-10, 1-0 Big South) collected 10 hits, all of which were singles. Matthew Barefoot (2-for-4, RBI) and Tyler Anshaw (2-for-5) each logged multi-hit outings to lead the Camels.

Charleston Southern (6-13, 0-1) took an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second, as Cole German hit a solo home run to right and Andrew Litchfield roped a two-run triple.

The Camels responded with two runs in the top of the third on back-to-back RBI singles from Barefoot and Jeff Hahs (1-for-4). Campbell tied the game on a single to left center by Zach Minnick (1-for-4) to score Barefoot. CU took the lead for good on an error by Charleston Southern, as Joe Zirolli hit a sharp grounder to the third baseman that was bobbled and allowed Hahs to score.

CSU threatened late, putting runners on the corners with just one out in the bottom of the ninth. Messer forced a popout and a fielder’s choice to end the game, as Anshaw threw to Christian Jones at second for the final out.

Campbell looks to clinch the series over the Bucs on Saturday (March 17), with first pitch set for 3 p.m.

(Campbell media services provided the basis for this report)