{"id":153446,"date":"2025-06-15T04:31:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T04:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/arkansas-baseball-not-done-yet-but-in-tough-spot-after-losing-college-world-series-opener-to-lsu-whole-hog-sports\/"},"modified":"2025-06-15T04:31:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T04:31:54","slug":"arkansas-baseball-not-done-yet-but-in-tough-spot-after-losing-college-world-series-opener-to-lsu-whole-hog-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/arkansas-baseball-not-done-yet-but-in-tough-spot-after-losing-college-world-series-opener-to-lsu-whole-hog-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Arkansas baseball 'not done yet,' but in tough spot after losing College World Series opener to LSU – Whole Hog Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today at 10:21 p.m.
by Matt Jones<\/a>
OMAHA, Neb. \u2014 The Arkansas baseball team is in must-win mode at the College World Series.\u00a0
The Razorbacks lost 4-1 to LSU in front of an announced crowd of 25,464 at Charles Schwab Field on Saturday night to fall into the losers bracket.\u00a0
Arkansas (48-14) will play Murray State (44-16) in an elimination game Monday at 1 p.m. The Racers lost 6-4 to UCLA on Saturday afternoon.\u00a0
LSU (49-15) moved into a winners bracket game against UCLA (48-16) on Monday at 6 p.m.\u00a0
In order to reach the national championship series next weekend, the Razorbacks must win 4 games in 4 days beginning Monday. A loss in any of those games would end Arkansas\u2019 season.\u00a0
\u201cWe are not done yet,\u201d Arkansas shortstop Wehiwa Aloy said. \u201cWe lost, but we have to keep on going.\u201d\u00a0
Quality starting pitching was the difference Saturday. LSU had it from sophomore left-hander Kade Anderson and Arkansas did not from junior lefty Zach Root.
The Tigers scored 3 runs against Root in the second inning and he was lifted after 38 pitches. The game\u2019s pivotal inning included a pair of 1-out walks to Luis Hernandez and Derek Curiel, and a 1-out bunt single by Daniel Dickinson to load the bases.\u00a0
Chris Stanfield\u2019s RBI single to left field plated the game\u2019s first run and Root hit Michael Braswell with a 1-0 pitch in the next at-bat to force home another.
Root was taken out of the game when Arkansas was unable to turn a double play on a groundball hit to shortstop by leadoff man Josh Pearson. The inability to turn the double play allowed Dickinson to score and gave LSU a 3-0 lead.\u00a0
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said it was a \u201chard decision\u201d to take Root out after 1 2\/3 innings, which matched the shortest start of his career. Pitching for East Carolina, Root pitched 1 2\/3 innings as a freshman at South Florida in May 2023.\u00a0
\u201cThe game [was] about to get out of hand,\u201d Van Horn said. \u201cYeah, it\u2019s early, but the wind was blowing in [and it was] going to be tough to hit it over anybody\u2019s head. Scoring a lot of runs against Anderson, to me, it wasn\u2019t something that was going to happen.\u00a0
\u201cI hated to do it, but I just felt like it was the right decision, and I\u2019ll stand by it. It was the right decision.\u201d\u00a0
Anderson was dominant during his 7-inning start for the Tigers. He allowed 3 hits and 2 walks, and the only run against him was Reese Robinett\u2019s leadoff home run to right field in the sixth inning to cut the LSU lead to 3-1.\u00a0
Robinett turned on a 3-2 fastball and hit it 386 feet for his fourth career home run. He had not homered since he did so twice against Texas on May 3.\u00a0
The Razorbacks were in the game after Robinett\u2019s homer, but Anderson returned to form in short order. He retired Arkansas\u2019 next 6 hitters \u2014 3 by strikeout and 3 on unassisted groundouts to first base.\u00a0
\u201cHe came after us with fastballs,\u201d Arkansas left fielder Charles Davalan said, \u201cbut after Robinett hit it out, he mixed it up. He was landing every pitch.\u201d\u00a0
Anderson, a draft-eligible sophomore who is ranked the No. 6 MLB Draft prospect this year by Baseball America, mixed a mid-to-upper 90s fastball with good off-speed pitches that got the Razorbacks to make weak contact early in the game.\u00a0
\u201c[That\u2019s] what we\u2019ve been accustomed to on the opening night of every weekend this year,\u201d LSU coach Jay Johnson said. \u201cI thought he got stronger as the game went along. I thought he executed pitches at a really high level, which you have to do against that offense.\u201d\u00a0
The Tigers went ahead 4-1 in the top of the eighth after Steven Milam hit a 1-out double against Gabe Gaeckle. Arkansas right fielder Logan Maxwell appeared to misread the ball on his run, which turned a single into an extra-base hit.\u00a0
After a pitching change to Cole Gibler, Curiel hit an RBI single to left on a 0-2, 2-out pitch.\u00a0
\u201cGibler made the mistake 0-2,\u201d Van Horn said. \u201cIt was supposed to be in the dirt and [if it was he] probably gets a punch out, and Gaeckle doesn\u2019t give up any runs because that was his run out there.\u201d\u00a0
Gaeckle was great in 6 innings of relief. He allowed 1 run, 3 hits and 1 walk, and struck out 10.\u00a0
\u201cHe did everything we were hoping he would do \u2014 held down a pretty good lineup and gave us a chance to chip away and get back in,\u201d Van Horn said. \u201cBut their staff didn\u2019t let us.\u201d\u00a0
Arkansas lost on a night when its pitching staff allowed 10 base runners and struck out 16 against a stout LSU lineup.\u00a0
\u201cIf there\u2019s a pitching staff that is capable of doing that to our team, it\u2019s the one we just faced,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cZach Root is an All-American. Gabe Gaeckle is one of the best pitchers in the country. Gibler is a lefty specialist and [Christian] Foutch throws 100 mph. That\u2019s that, and I\u2019m proud of my team for fighting our way to win.\u201d\u00a0
LSU right-hander Chase Shores replaced Anderson when Cam Kozeal hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the eighth inning. Shores struck out Brent Iredale looking at a 100 mph fastball and Robinett swinging at 100, and Justin Thomas flied out to center on a well-hit ball to end the inning.\u00a0
\u201cThomas can\u2019t hit a ball any harder to center field,\u201d Van Horn said, \u201cbut that\u2019s the breaks of the game.\u201d\u00a0
Arkansas had leadoff base runners in the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth innings. Iredale hit into a double play after Kuhio Aloy\u2019s leadoff walk in the second and Ryder Helfrick hit into a double play after Wehiwa Aloy\u2019s leadoff single in the fourth.
Braswell at third base began both double plays.\u00a0
LSU closer Casan Evans recorded his seventh save while facing the top of the Arkansas lineup in the ninth. Davalan led off with a single, but Evans struck out Wehiwa Aloy on a 2-2 pitch to gain momentum, and Maxwell and Helfrick both grounded out to end the game.
Arkansas has a hard road to reach the championship series. In the past 25 College World Series, only Oregon State in 2006 and 2018, and South Carolina in 2002 and 2010 lost the first game and advanced from their bracket.\u00a0
Three of those teams won the national championship.\u00a0
\u201cWe know we didn\u2019t play well, but [Van Horn] said we are here for a reason,\u201d Davalan said. \u201cThere have been teams before us that have lost the first game and come back to make a run.\u201d\u00a0
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Today at 10:21 p.m. by Matt Jones OMAHA, Neb. \u2014 The Arkansas baseball team is in must-win mode at the College World Series.\u00a0The Razorbacks lost 4-1 to LSU in front of an announced crowd of 25,464 at Charles Schwab Field on Saturday night to fall into the losers bracket.\u00a0Arkansas (48-14) will play Murray State (44-16) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}