BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Junior RHP
Nic Laio once again had a stellar outing on the mound in his second career start, recording a career-high six strikeouts as Western Michigan baseball fell to Campbell, 5-1 on day two of the Campbell Invitational.
Laio threw a career-high 5.1 innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits while striking out six. At one point the junior right-handed pitcher retired six straight batters, three by strikeout. Laio retired seven of the last nine batters he faced with three K's.
Out of the bullpen sophomore LHP
Brandon Petersen pitched two innings, allowing just one run on one hit while striking out three. As a pitching staff, Western Michigan totaled nine strikeouts against Campbell.
WMU cut the Campbell deficit to one in the top of the eighth as junior
Conner Henderson earned the RBI with a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring sophomore
Drew Devine. The Broncos led off the inning with back to back walks by Devine and pinch-hitter
Evan Nelson to give WMU runners on first and second with no outs.
Redshirt junior
Andrew Stone executed a perfect sacrifice bunt to move the runners over before Henderson's sacrifice fly brought WMU's first run of the game across the plate and cut the Campbell lead to 2-1. Campbell quickly responded with three runs on three hits in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Campbell loaded the bases with one out before Campbell's Kevin Barron doubled to right center, scoring one run to extend the lead. Three pitches later, Kyle Mehl roped a two RBI double to left center field to give the Fighting Camels a 5-1 lead.
At the plate the Broncos were led by junior third baseman
Jimmy Roche who went 2-for-4. Western Michigan recorded four hits on the night compared to Campbell's eight. The junior
Jesse Forestell and
Connor Smith also each recorded a hit.
The fighting camels got out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first as Campbell's Ty Babin earned the first of his two RBI's on the night with a bunt towards the shortstop. Campbell grabbed another run in the bottom of the third as Babin slapped a ball to the second baseman that scored the runner from third and gave the Fighting Camels a 2-0 lead.
One of WMU's better scoring chances came in the top of the fourth as Roche earned his second hit of the day with a single through the right side to lead off the inning. However,
three straight strikeouts by the Broncos ended the scoring threat.
WMU will conclude the Campbell Invitational on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 11:00 a.m. against Yale.
