BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Campbell's Big South-leading pitching staff held Longwood's bats in check early, and another big day at the plate from Matthew Barefoot helped the second-place Fighting Camels hold on for a 13-9 win over Longwood in game two of the series Friday afternoon at Jim Perry Stadium.
 
Behind a three-hit, two-RBI day from Barefoot, Campbell (31-19, 18-7 Big South) built a 12-0 lead early, which proved to be the difference even as the Lancers (11-39, 5-20 Big South) mounted their biggest single-season scoring outburst of the season with an eight-run eighth inning.
 
Longwood continued that end-game rally into the ninth, cutting Campbell's lead back to four behind a leadoff single from Eli Mercado and an RBI double from Jack Schnell, but junior reliever Jack Yusko ended the threat by retiring three straight to close out the game.
 
Longwood's nine runs tied for the fifth most Campbell has allowed all season and tied for the second most by a Big South team. The effort came against a Fighting Camels staff that leads the Big South in ERA and opponent batting average.
 
Drayven Kowalski and Jawan McAllister both drove in two runs apiece for the Lancers, while Schnell finished 4-for-5 and Eli Mercado singled and scored twice as a late-game pinch-hitter.
 
However, it was Barefoot who sparked the Fighting Camels to their seventh Big South series win of the year, jumpstarting the lineup from the leadoff spot with a home run, three runs and a 3-for-5 performance at the plate. His three hits came in his first three at bats as the Big South Preseason Player of the Year delivered a leadoff double in the first, a single in the second and then his 12th home run of the season in the third.
 
Barefoot's early outburst helped Campbell build an 8-0 lead that backed a shutout seven innings from the lefty-righty duo of Phil Simpson and Seth Johnson (3-3). Simpson started the game with four shutout innings yielding to Johnson, who kept the shutout alive with 3.0 one-hit innings to bring a 12-0 lead into the eighth.
 
However, Longwood's bats woke up after Johnson's exit, plating a season-high eight runs in the top of the eighth to cut Campbell's 12-run lead to four. After managing just four hits against Simpson and Johnson, Longwood took advantage of three straight leadoff walks from reliever Cole Hart and then sent eight consecutive batters all the way around the base paths. Mercado sent the first of those in with an RBI fielder's choice, and Kowalski followed with a two-run single. McAllister capped the scoring with a two-run triple that was first of the season.
 
Campbell got one of those runs back against Longwood reliever Alec Abdallah in the bottom of the eighth, which was the lone blemish on the Lancer junior's 3.0 innings in relief. Longwood got that run right back in the top of the ninth when Schnell followed Mercado's leadoff single with a double down the left field line, but Yusko stopped the bleeding by striking out Kowalski and getting Nate Blakeney and Hunter Gilliam to roll back-to-back groundouts to shortstop.
 
The loss secures the three-game series for Campbell, but Longwood will have the opportunity to end the 2019 season with a win in the finale, scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. Longwood will send freshman standout Andrew Melnyk to the mound opposite Campbell's Ryan Chasse.
 
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