Campbell on decision to return to Razorbacks for this season

Redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Isaiah Campbell was the second Razorbacks taken in the 2019 MLB first-year player draft Monday night.

Campbell was taken by Seattle, No. 76 overall.

Campbell is the sixth pitcher since 2013.

Arkansas’ previous top picks in the last two drafts were right-hander Trevor Stephan, who went in the third round to the New York Yankees in 2017 as the 92nd overall pick and Blaine Knight, who went in 2018 to the Baltimore Orioles in the third round as the 84th pick.

Campbell was selected in last year’s draft as a redshirt sophomore by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (24th, No. 721), but elected to come back to Fayetteville for his fourth year and has had one of the biggest jumps of any pitcher in the nation.

The Olathe, Kansas, native has racked up an 11-1 record this year and has helped the Hogs into their second-straight NCAA Super Regionals, their eighth appearance in supers in school history.

He recently was named an All-American by Collegiate Baseball Magazine and showed his All-American stuff in the NCAA Regional last week with a career-high eight-inning, one-run performance against TCU to put the Hogs into the regional final.

Campbell has racked up a team-best 2.27 ERA among Hog pitchers that have thrown 40 or more innings and has struck out 108 batters over 103 innings, which are all career-bests.

He topped the 100-strikeout mark during his start in the SEC Tournament and is now sitting ninth all-time on the Arkansas single-season charts with 108 strikeouts.

Throughout his career, Campbell has made 48 appearances on the mound since 2016, 39 being starts. He has a 3.29 ERA in 205 innings and has held opponents to a .232 batting average.

Last week, in his start against TCU in the regional, Campbell reached 200 strikeouts in his career, becoming the sixth Razorback under Van Horn with 200 or more strikeouts in a career.