Baseball: Simi Valley’s Justin Campbell is coming home with a gold medal
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Life isn’t going to be the same for 12--year-old Justin Campbell, a pitcher from Simi Valley who led the USA 12U national basebal team to an 8-1 win over Chinese Taipei on Sunday in the gold medal game of the International Baseball Federation World Cup before a near capacity crowd of 10,500 in Taipei City.
He was named to the all-tournament team as the best starting pitcher after going 2-0 in the tournament with one save. He pitched 5 2/3 innings on Sunday, allowing one run on six hits while striking out four. That was the only run he allowed in the tournament.
Campell, the younger brother of Simi Valley High senior pitching standout Matt Campbell, has been known as a pitching phenom for several years. He’s near 6 feet 1 and only entering the seventh grade at Valley View Middle School.
Simi Valley baseball Coach Matt La Belle can’t wait until he shows up for high school. “He’s pretty good,” La Belle said.
Brother Matt, who’s set to pitch in the Area Code Games this weekend and is being pursued by several colleges, has said, “I”m so proud of my brother.”
So is the community of Simi Valley, which will be excited to watch Campbell continue to develop in the coming years.
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