ELON, N.C. – A balanced offensive attack churned out 14 runs as the Elon University baseball team defeated the visiting Campbell Camels by a 14-2 margin on Tuesday night at Latham Park. The win was the 10th consecutive home victory for the Phoenix, the fourth-longest active streak in the nation.
Eight of the nine Elon (25-25) starters had at least one hit. Nick Zammarelli went 2-for-4, scored three runs and hit the program’s first inside-the-park home run since April 4, 2008 (Cory Harrilchak vs. Georgia Southern). Tyler McVicar, Danny Lynch and Austin Leeney all drove in two runs for the maroon and gold.
Campbell (24-23) got two of its seven hits from Kyle Prats who went 2-for-3 with a run scored and one RBI.
Nick Beaulac (1-4) went 4.0 innings, allowing one run on four hits and striking out three to pick up the win.
The loss was charged to Wes Noble who surrendered eight runs (seven earned) on seven hits in 3.1 innings of work.
How It Happened: Elon built a 2-1 lead after three innings before putting the game out of reach in the fourth. The Phoenix offense erupted for nine runs on eight hits to stretch its lead to 11-1. With one out and runners on the corners, Ryne Ogren doubled home the first run of the frame. After Zammarelli was hit by a pitch, McVicar ripped a two-run single to right, stretching the Phoenix advantage to 5-1. Lynch followed with a two-run double high off the wall in left and later scored on Brett Guba’s two-out single through the left side of the infield. Kory Shumate’s infield single loaded the bases, but the Camels committed an error that allowed the seventh run of the inning to score. Leeney would deliver the final two with a single to center.
Campbell got one in the fifth before Zammarelli led off the bottom half with a towering fly ball to right. Neither the right fielder or center fielder could find the ball in the sky and it fell on the warning track and went for an inside-the-park home run, Zammarelli’s eighth homer of the season.
The Phoenix tacked on two more in the eighth as one scored on a wild pitch and another on a Kyle Jackson grounder.
Notes: Zammarelli’s inside-the-park homer was the fourth for Elon at the Division I level… McVicar has now reached base safely in 22 consecutive contests, while Zammarelli has reached in 20 straight and Ogren in 19… Ogren’s hitting streak is at 10 games… Elon’s 10-game home winning streak is its longest since claiming 11 consecutive victories at Latham Park in 2009.
On Deck: Elon will conclude the regular season with a three-game home series against Richmond. The set begins at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 19.