Both the Camden Redlegs and South Dayton Slammers cruised through the 2018 playoffs with unblemished records as they set the stage for a rematch of the 2017 finals and the Redlegs 3rd straight trip to the Champsionship series.

The Slammers sent their ace to the mound in game 1, and while the Redlegs were able to get runners on base regularly, Jeff Beal was able to strand runners throughout the day and keep enough runs off the board to put the Slammers in position for the win. On the other side, Kevin Campbell was able to match pace with Beal for the Redlegs as he kept the high-powered Slammers at bay for the first half of the game.

The Slammers struck first in the bottom of the 1st as they were able to take advantage of a Redleg error and scratch together a run.

The Redlegs grabbed the lead in top of the 3rd. Jacob Robinson and Nick Davis started the inning with back-to- back singles. Kyle Arend then dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position. RBI machine Mike Hartmen then delivered with an RBI single before Brandon Howard got a job done by hitting a ground ball to the right side, sacrificing an out for a run.

The Slammers responded by scoring 3 times in the bottom of the 3rd, taking a 4-2 lead. Camden then chipped away by scoring again in the top of the 5th. Kyle Arend began the inning with a single and later Ryan Gross smoked a one-out double to bring Arend home.

Todd Barhorst got that run right back when drove a lead- off homer over the left field fence, giving the Slammers a 5-3 advantage. Campbell then recorded two straight outs, but simply ran out of gas in a gutsy performance as his recovery from off-season shoulder surgery continues. Luke Campbell came on in relief and only had to throw one pitch as Ryan Gross quickly gunned down a Slammers baserunner trying to steal 2nd.

Unfortunately the Redlegs were only able to scrape together one more run in the game and eventually fell by a final score of 9-4. The Redlegs outhit the Slammers 15-10 but just couldn’t capitalize on enough opportunities as they left 9 men stranded in the game.

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