Florida A&M

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Campa
5
Winner Florida A&M FAMU 30-22
1
Southern U. SBR 29-23
Winner
Florida A&M FAMU
30-22
5
Final
1
Southern U. SBR
29-23
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Florida A&M FAMU 0 2 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 5 6 1
Southern U. SBR 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 1

W: Campa, Jesus (3-2) L: Alexavier Lebron (1-3) S: Young, Ryan (1)

Game Recap: Baseball |

Campa Goes the Distance, McKenzie Homers Again as Rattlers Top Southern 5-1 & Advance to SWAC Championship

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Two days at Rickwood Field. Two wins. Jesus Campa delivered one of the best outings of his career on Friday afternoon, pitching a complete game and allowing just one earned run as Florida A&M defeated Southern University 5-1 to improve to 30-22 on the season. Jackson McKenzie — still riding the wave of Wednesday's cycle — homered again in the second inning, and the Rattlers did the rest through relentless at-bats and 11 walks drawn.

Campa was locked in from the first out to the last. He surrendered a leadoff home run to Ryan Hunter in the bottom of the first — a 2-0 count fastball to right center that tied the game at 1 — and then essentially shut Southern down for eight more innings. He went nine full, allowing five hits, striking out six and walking just one. He induced 11 groundball outs and navigated traffic in the fourth and fifth innings without giving an inch. It was the kind of performance that turns a season around.

McKenzie made sure Campa had the lead he needed and kept it. In the second inning, batting fourth against Alexavier Lebron, McKenzie turned on a 1-1 pitch and sent it to right field for a solo home run — his second in two games at the same venue. The Rattlers added a run in the same inning when Ethan Miller walked, advanced on a wild pitch, moved to third on a Monile bunt single and scored on a Matthew Perez sacrifice fly to make it 2-1.

FAMU's offense operated on patience all afternoon. The Rattlers drew 11 walks against Southern's staff — every run they scored came on a combination of free passes, contact and situational hitting rather than power. A William Brown sacrifice fly in the fourth plated Matthew Perez for the third run. A Matthew Perez wild pitch score in the sixth, after he had walked and been buntted to third, pushed the margin to 4-1. And in the ninth, William Brown singled, Kresak bunted him over and Campbell singled, loading the bases for McKenzie — who was hit by a pitch to force in the fifth run.

Southern threatened in the fourth when Jacoby Radcliffe singled and stole second. But Campa induced a groundout, a flyout and a strikeout in order to keep the damage at zero. He did the same in the fifth when Ryan Hunter doubled and reached third with one out — getting a flyout and a groundout to strand the runner and keep Southern off the board.

Ryan Young came on to close out the ninth for Southern in relief, retiring the Jaguars in order on 13 pitches — two groundouts and a strikeout — to seal the win. The Rattlers have now won four straight tournament games at Rickwood Field across two days and are playing some of the best baseball of their season.
 

Key Stats — Florida A&M 5, Southern University 1

Batting
Jackson McKenzie — 1-4, HR (solo, 2nd inning), RBI, R, HBP (forced in run in 9th)
William Brown — 1-2, SF, RBI, R, 2 BB, SB
Jay Campbell — 1-3, SF, RBI, BB (bases loaded single in 9th set up run)
Matthew Perez — 0-0, R (scored on wild pitch in 6th), BB

Pitching
Jesus Campa (W) — 9.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K (complete game)
 
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