By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
OMAHA, Neb. – Arkansas head baseball coach Dave Van Horn didn’t need to review a post-game box score.
He watched with his own eyes as his No. 3 national seed Razorbacks never led in a 4-1 College World Series first-round loss to No. 6 national seed LSU here on Saturday night.
“Really, it boiled down to Anderson,” Van Horn said. “He didn’t give us anything. He’s 11-1 because he’s really good.”
Make that reeeeeaaaaalllllly goooooood as the Tigers (49-15) advanced to today’s 6 p.m. winners’ bracket game vs. No. 15 national seed UCLA (48-16), a 6-4 winner over Murray State in Saturday’s first game.
LSU starting sophomore pitcher Kade Anderson gave up three of Arkansas’ four hits and its only run on first baseman Reese Robinett’s solo homer to lead off the bottom of the sixth.
After Anderson allowed seven runs and nine his in seven innings in the Tigers’ Super Regional opening win over West Virginia last Saturday, he was determined there wouldn’t be a repeat against the Razorbacks.
“That’s part of the game,” Anderson said of his struggles vs. the Mountaineers. “You don’t take those for granted. It’s a learning lesson. To have that experience and to learn from that outing was huge. And (LSU pitching) (Nate) Yeskie and I went through it and found out what the plan was for next week to be better.”
Besides Robinett, none of Arkansas’ five other baserunners advanced past second base off Anderson and Tigers’ relievers Chase Shores and Casan Evans.
Despite four Arkansas pitchers having 16 strikeouts against LSU batters – first baseman Jared Jones struck out in all five at-bats – the Tigers got what they needed to win.
“We focus on how we play and how we win probably more than any team in the country,” said LSU fourth-year head coach Jay Johnson, who is chasing a second national title in the last three years. “We don’t just sell out to that. But when you’re playing this opponent, this arena, just finding a way to get it done.”
Arkansas stayed within striking distance the whole game, thanks to sophomore Gabe Gaeckle, the second of three
Razorbacks relievers.
He kept LSU scoreless for the next six innings until he was pulled with two outs in the eighth. He tied an Arkansas CWS record with 10 strikeouts and allowed four base runners (three hits and a walk), but only allowed two base runners after the third inning.
“I just wanted to eat up some innings to save some guys because we’ve got a lot of games ahead of us,” Gaeckle said.
Something Van Horn never expected to do was yank his All-SEC first-team starting pitcher Zach Root after 1.2 innings and 38 pitches.
After LSU shortstop Steven Milam struck out to open the top of the second inning, Root allowed a career-high five straight batters to reach base as the Tigers took a 3-0 lead.
Root issued a pair of one-out walks to catcher Luis Hernandez and shortstop Derek Curiel before second baseman Daniel Dickinson reached base on a bunt single to load the bases.
Center fielder Chris Stanfield’s RBI single scored Hernandez, third baseman Michael Braswell III was hit by a Root pitch, scoring Curiel, and right fielder Josh Pearson’s fielder’s choice ground ball RBI scored Dickinson.
Like his performance in the Super Regionals, true freshman Curiel made key plays in the offense that LSU managed to muster.
He battled back from a 0-2 count in LSU’s second inning rally and scored. Then, in the bottom of the eighth after Milam hit a one-out double, Curiel’s RBI two-out single off reliever Cole Gibler also came on a 0-2 pitch.
“I know with my hand-eye coordination, I’m able to battle in any count,” Curiel said. “So, I’m never defeated in the box, even when I go down 0-2 on two pretty ugly swings, probably my two ugliest swings of the year.”
LSU’s eighth-inning run was huge because it scored four or more runs in 45 of its 49 wins this season. It certainly helps when four runs can be enough, as it was vs. the Razorbacks because of Anderson.
“He’s got tremendous stuff,” Johnson said of Anderson. “He’s never boxed into having to throw a certain way. When you put that four-pitch mix with that type of competitive fire, feel for what he needed to do, like he said, live in the classroom, he’s right back to it. Coach Yeskie and he did a great job of making sure he was ready for today.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com
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