Hogs discover good pitching still needs some hits to produce a win

Nothing in sports may be more frustrating for fans than watching their team come out on the short end of a 1-0 game.

It’s downright maddening for some.

Such was the case for Arkansas fans Saturday evening when starter Isaiah Campbell struck out 10 in seven innings and didn’t allow a single run. That’s good pitching.

But no runs scored cancels that out.

For Razorback fans, this game is one that will have the “what-if” meter pegged at maximum level. Some will spend more time worrying about what didn’t happen than what DOES happen, starting Monday afternoon.

The Hogs couldn’t get the ball to go in the right places when they had scoring chances.

“That’s kinda the way the game works,” Dave Van Horn said later.

It’s small consolation for some fans as frustration mounted with zero runs in Omaha in the last 18 innings they’ve played there.

Especially now that the margin for error is razor thin.

The Razorbacks play Texas Tech on Monday at 1 p.m. in a loser-goes-home game. They faced one last Monday against Ole Miss in the Super Regional and came through with a whopping 14-1 win.

Which is why Saturday’s lack of offense was puzzling to some, but really shouldn’t be.

Every time in Omaha is quite capable of beating any other team that’s there. It all depends on something nobody wants to mention by name — luck. You can almost rip the cover off the ball, but if it goes right to someone, well, it’s still an out.

That plagued the Hogs against the Seminoles.

“We hit some balls hard early at people,” Van Horn said. “Hit a couple of ball off the end of the bat that just happened to go right at them.”

Coaches say all the time, “that’s baseball.” That’s true.

Advertisement

This team is quite capable of putting up some big numbers against the Red Raiders. Starting pitcher Connor Noland is due for a solid outing after struggling against the Rebels last Sunday.

Part of it is he’s well-rested. Van Horn does have everybody available for this game that is, effectively, a game with the season on the line.

But he’s well aware the Greenwood freshman has responded from a bad outing with a good one this season.

Against Vanderbilt early in the season, Noland didn’t make it out of the first inning. He came back the next week against Mississippi State, not allowing a run in seven innings.

Part of it may be a hunch from Van Horn. As we’ve pointed out before, those tend to work out pretty well.

But as Hogs fans painfully discovered Saturday, you still need the good hitting when the pitching is solid.

And a little bit of luck.