Despite an impressive late charge from Wake Forest's Will Craig, North Dakota's Jeff Campbell staved off the ACC Player of the Year to capture the 2015 College Baseball Home Run Derby crown. Thanks to a record-setting first-round showing that saw Campbell jack 20 home runs, he was able to put things on cruise control in Round 2 before gearing up for a heavy-hitting showdown with Craig in the final frame. Campbell, a right-handed pitcher and infielder, became the first senior in contest history to take home the title.After starting things off as the first batter of the evening, Craig had two hours to rest between his first- and second-round at-bats. And while he trailed Georgia Tech's Kel Johnson by 14 home runs entering the decisive at-bat, he wasn't affected by fatigue like some of his competitorsat least for one round. With a shot in the finale on the line, Craig bolstered his cumulative first- and second-round total to a monster 25 home runsand he did so with two outs to spare. Throughout his jaw-dropping Round 2, Craig proved he could punch the ball with power to either side.Not only did Craig scorch line drives into the stands, but he also cranked picturesque shots to center field and all the way back toward the facing of a concession stand in deep left.However, Craig couldn't sustain that success in the finals, when Campbell proved to be far more rested after batting first in the second round. Campbell, who obliterated baseballs from start to finish, capped off a season that saw him bat for the cycle back on May 16 against New Mexico State by achieving long ball.As expected, big bats from the ACC started things off with a bang in Omaha, Nebraska.Craig bashed eight home runs by the time he had five outs in Round 1, and he even launched one as far as 470 feet with a blast to center.However, it was Johnson who went simply ballistic after Craig recorded nine dingers to start the festivities. Johnson matched Craig's first-round total all before recording his third out, including a 505-foot tape-measure shot that sent the Omaha crowd into a frenzy.As Bleacher Report's David Kenyon observed, Johnson's balance at the plate made his cuts the most aesthetically pleasing of the night:Johnson capped off his first round with 17home runs after crunching the Quicken Loans moneyball (worth two points) that was allotted to hitters after they recorded their 10th out. The 17 long-balls temporarily represented a first-round record before Campbell took center stage, as the Yellow Jacket outfielder and first baseman repeatedly peppered the left field stands. Records continued to fall throughout the competition's opening stanza, according to the event's official Twitter account:2014 runner-up Eric Gutierrez narrowly escaped the first round by smashing nine homers, three of which came after he had nine outs on the board."You want to win, but you want to have some fun," Gutierrez said prior to Thursday night's contest, according to the World-Herald's Gene Schinzel."Im not stressed about anything, just want to go out there and bomb.Sluggers Joe Dunand (N.C. State) and Zack Collins (Miami) didn't put forth equally impressive showings in Round 1. Dunand and Collins ripped six and seven home runs, respectively, as consistency proved to be elusive.But asSchinzel noted, those scores wouldn't have looked so underwhelming during the 2014 competition:Dunand was eliminated after Campbell stepped to the plate and put on a show immediately following the freshman's performance. Mercer's Kyle Lewis experienced a similar fate after hitting just four home runs as the sixth man up. The ACC nearly dominated the evening, but it was Campbell who ultimately stole the show and bucked trends.
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