North Gwinnett sweeps Campbell

SMYRNA — Campbell’s postseason run came to an end with a two-game sweep at the hands of North Gwinnett in a second-round Class AAAAAAA state playoff series Tuesday at Lattanzi Field.

North Gwinnett came back from a 3-1 deficit to win the first game 9-3, then won 4-1 to advance to the state quarterfinals, where the Bulldogs will face either Etowah or Walton in a best-of-three series beginning Monday.

Campbell (15-15-1) fell behind 1-0 in the second inning of Game 1, but it came back with three runs in the third to take a 3-1 lead. After that, it was all North Gwinnett (19-16) as it, helped by a couple of errors, scored four runs in the fifth inning, three in the sixth and one more in the seventh to pull away for the win.

“When you kick the ball around a little bit, it opens up,” Campbell coach Jeff Searcy said. “You know that errors are going to happen. That’s why we have a stat for it. You just hope it doesn’t happen when you have guys on base. You hope they don’t happen when it’s going to bite you. Unfortunately, the couple that we had bit us a little bit, but we had opportunities. (North Gwinnett is) a really good ball team. They took down a No. 1 seed to make it here, so I don’t take anything away from North Gwinnett. That’s a great ball team.

Jacori McGee was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored, while Kaden Bain was also 2-for-3 with a run driven in and Garrett DeHart was 2-for-4 with a run scored to lead Campbell at the plate.

Campbell had trouble generating offense in Game 2 as it was shut down by North Gwinnett pitcher Gavin Zeller’s three-hit, complete-game effort.

The Bulldogs scored two runs each in the second and third innings, with Mack Croner adding a two-run home run in the bottom of the second.

Dylan Gold doubled to score McGee in the top of the sixth to provide the only run of the game for Campbell.

“We had a shot,” Searcy said. “We had a shot in both games, but baseball is see ball, hit ball, catch ball, throw ball. Whoever does that best on any given day wins, and they were just a little bit better today.”