Sports
South Cobb Ace Shuts Down Campbell, 4-1
Spartans have dropped six of last seven as offense struggles against region rival.
South Cobb’s David Collins and Taylor Colwell engaged in a pitchers' duel with Collins and the Eagles getting the best of Colwell and the host Spartans, winning 4-1 Tuesday night at Lattanzi Field.
Campbell has dropped six of its last seven games, and its current record stands at 6-10 overall with a 1-5 mark in Region 4-AAAAA.
The Eagles’ righty threw a complete game three-hitter and struck out eight batters to lead his team to victory.
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“Their pitcher [Collins] was impressive,” said Campbell coach Ron Wendt. “Taylor pitched well for us too. We just couldn’t get anything going against their guy.”
South Cobb took a 2-0 lead in the second inning without ever getting the ball out of the infield against Colwell. Colwell allowed two infield singles, hit one batter and walked in a run. The second run scored on a groundball out before Colwell retired the Eagles’ No. 3 hitter to end the inning.
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“I struggled to throw strikes early and couldn’t locate my curveball as well as I normally do,” said Colwell.
South Cobb added a pair of unearned runs in the sixth to make the score 4-0 courtesy of Campbell fielding errors. The only hit in the inning came off the bat of Eagles’ freshman shortstop Tyler Minkkinen, who went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI and played superbly in the field.
The Spartans were able to load the bases in the bottom of the inning, but came away with one only run. Shortstop Alex Jardine drew a walk and eventually scored on a wild pitch by Collins. The South Cobb hurler stranded a pair of Campbell runners after inducing a groundball to first base, ending the only serious threat mounted by the Spartans during the game.
“David threw strikes, kept the ball down, and did what he needed to do - what he’s done for four years,” said South Cobb head coach and David’s father, Mark Collins. “Their pitcher [Colwell] threw a good game. We had plenty of difficulty with him. He was hard to get to.”
Campbell will play its next two games on the road, closing out the week at North Cobb on Thursday, April 14 and at Kennesaw Mountain on Friday, April 15.
