Campbell ends NC State’s season with 11-1 win in NCAA Tournament’s Columbia Regional

For the first 15 innings of the Columbia regional, the Campbell offense didn’t look anything like it did during a rather dominant regular season. But the last 12 innings have been sort of a redemption period.

The second-seeded Camels avenged an opening day loss to North Carolina State with an offense that recorded three home runs and pounded six Wolfpack pitchers for 16 hits in an 11-1 victory Sunday afternoon to advance to the regional championship against host South Carolina.

Campbell (46-14) and South Carolina will play at 6 p.m. Sunday. The Gamecocks advance to the Super Regionals with a victory, but a Camels win will force a winner-take-all situation on Monday.

The Camels had one run and the offense looked rather anemic during a loss to the Wolfpack on Friday and again during the first six innings against Central Connecticut State. Bryce Arnold’s grand slam got things going in the come-from-behind victory over the Blue Devils on Saturday and it’s been more than normal ever since.

They scored 21 runs in those 12 innings since being held to one in the first 15 innings.

“Yesterday we talked about (continuing to) fight and continue to punch,” Campbell coach Justin Haire said. “This is such a game of momentum. If you don’t get off to a hot start, finding a spark somewhere in there and yesterday was that spark. It freed our guys up.”

Jarrod Belbin opened the victory over the Wolfpack with a towering home run that landed on the street beyond the right field fence. Drew Winters added a 2-run shot and the Camels led 3-0 before many of the orange-clad faithful settled into their seats at Founders Park.

Campbell added two runs in the second on RBIs from Belbin and Arnold and Grant Knipp hit the third home run of the day in a two-run third inning.

It was 8-1 in the eighth inning when the Camels added three more runs to end any doubt remaining.

That was more than enough support for Campbell starter Chance Daquila. The junior right-hander pitched shutout baseball into the seventh inning. He departed after 106 pitches and allowed one run on eight hits and was backed by four double plays by the defense.

“I was cool, calm and collected,” Daquila said. “I don’t get many strikeouts as you can tell so my defense knows they’re going to get a bunch of ground balls and fly balls and they were behind me all day.”

N.C. State (36-21) closes the 2023 campaign short of advancing out of the regional round after not making the NCAA Tournament last season. Elliott Avent finishes his 27th year at the helm of the Wolfpack two wins shy of 1,000 at N.C. State. Overall, Avent has won 1,223 in 35 years as a head coach.

“It was great to be here with our ball club. We’ve been through a lot this fall and this spring. To get to this point is what you play for all year,” Avent said. “I thought we had our opportunities but every time we would get men on, the ball would find a glove somewhere. It wasn’t our day, but it doesn’t take away from what these guys did all year.”