Hogs’ center fielder Dominic Fletcher talked Wednesday about getting back to Omaha for the second straight year and being one of the favorites at the College World Series.
???? Wednesday Halftime Pod w/ Phil Elson & Tye Richardson
Phil & Tye hit on the challenges that lie ahead for Arkansas, plus Change my mind!
Cronin, Campbell named to more All-American teams
FAYETTEVILLE — With the Razorbacks already in Omaha and Arkansas’ first game of the 2019 College World Series just three days away, two more sets of All-America teams were released this week as Baseball America and the National College Baseball Writers’ Association (NCBWA) honored right-handers Isaiah Campbell and Matt Cronin as All-Americans.
It’s the second and third time this year that Campbell and Cronin have been named All-Americans by various college baseball publications.
Both Campbell and Cronin were named to the second team by Baseball America one week after Campbell earned second team honors and Cronin third team honors from Collegiate Baseball.
Campbell also earned second team honors from the NCBWA and Cronin was named to the third team by the same publication. Campbell and Cronin are the 11th and 12th non-freshman pitchers to be named All-Americans in school history and 16th and 17th overall.
Following the footsteps of Blaine Knight into his redshirt junior year, Campbell has given Arkansas ace-like numbers all year as the Friday night starter.
With a team-leading 2.26 ERA, Campbell has garnered a 12-1 record and struck out 115 batters over 111.1 innings, which are all career-bests heading into the CWS.
Campbell is coming off, arguably, his best outing as a Razorback, working a career-long 8.1 innings in the NCAA Super Regional last week against Ole Miss, striking out seven.
Campbell has a 1.65 ERA in 16.1 innings of the NCAA Tournament this year and has pitched eight or more innings in each of his two starts.
Campbell, an Olathe, Kansas native, was named a Golden Spikes Semifinalist last month, the first since Andrew Benintendi in 2015, and is just two wins away from tying the single-season school record of 14 wins set by Blaine Knight a year ago.
Campbell was drafted No. 76 overall to the Seattle Mariners in the 2019 MLB Draft, joining teammate Dominic Fletcher, who was taken one pick prior, as the first Razorbacks to be taken on the first day of the draft since Benintendi went seventh overall to Boston in 2015.
Cronin hasn’t given up a run in seven-straight appearances (8.0 innings) dating back to May 3 and two of those outings were more than one inning, resulting in two of his last three saves.
Cronin was also an All-SEC pick for the first time in his career as he was one of nine Razorback selected and was drafted in the fourth round of the 2019 MLB Draft to the Washington Nationals.
Arkansas (46-18) will play its first game of the 2019 College World Series on Saturday against Florida State (41-27) with first pitch from TD Ameritrade Park at 6 p.m.
The game will be televised on ESPN.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Wednesday
John & Tommy discuss the Hogs heading to Omaha today, teams that scare you, Hutch and more!
Season shows why Van Horn may be best coach in college baseball
In a season that you get the idea has even caught Dave Van Horn by surprise, Arkansas finds itself back in Omaha and the surprising part may be they powered their way back.
Dave Van Horn has been considered one of the better coaches in college baseball for awhile.
Now he has to be in the conversation about the best.
And even he didn’t forecast this trip.
“It’s amazing what you can do with a little bit of hard work and a little bit of luck and a bunch of guys who believe,” Van Horn said after the Razorbacks stomped Ole Miss in game three of the super regional at Baum-Walker on Monday afternoon. “This has been one of the most gratifying seasons I’ve ever had as a coach because we weren’t expected to do much.”
Before the season, he told us this team might be a little over-rated because they were ranked by everybody. He gave us the impression after a couple of fall scrimmages this team might not even be ranked in the early polls.
After losing six starters off last year’s team that came agonizingly close to a title, it was understandable these Hogs didn’t get a lot of high rankings in the preseason. Nobody was putting them in Omaha.
“It’s hard enough to make it there once every now and then,” he said. “To get there two years in a row with a bunch of guys who that watched on the side last year — maybe weren’t even with us.
“The case of (third baseman) Jacob Nesbit, he didn’t make the travel squad. He was playing summer ball right now. Today he gets a big double, makes a great diving play to end the game. What a thrill.”
Van Horn is a coach that works with 11.7 scholarships a year. He’s as good at recruiting as any coach in any sport in school history. Blame the kangaroo court that governs college athletics for what is an absolutely ridiculous restriction, but it’s what he has to work with … every year.
“Sometimes you can’t get everybody you want,” he said. “They end up on other teams you play and people wonder why you can’t get ’em because you offer less than somebody else. They call you and say they want to go there but somebody else is offering me this and we say we can’t and they go somewhere else.
“It happens all the time.”
He broke down a philosophy that requires a lot of juggling, psychology and probably downright guessing based on hunches.
“You’re going to put a lot of money into pitching,” Van Horn said. “You’re going to try to be good up the middle. You gotta develop, get some guys on the minimum scholarship, which is 25 percent and you gotta hope that they have a little bit of an edge because they’re not on as much as somebody else. Plus, you gotta get some academic guys that are on academic only.
“Then when they all get here, you tell ’em, ‘I don’t care how you got here and I don’t care if you’re on a scholarship, if you’re a walk-on or a recruited walk-on … if you’re the best player you’re going to play.’ We don’t care.”
Oh, and one other thing that plays a role in it, too.
“You get lucky,” he said.
That’s the recruiting part that is just a part of it. It means nothing if they don’t perform on the field.
“You gotta go back that up,” Van Horn said. “We have to do that every year.”
Van Horn has proven to be as good at that as anybody in the sport.
“It was an incredible ride, journey — whatever you want to call it — this season,” he said.
Simmering below the surface, though, is the fact that winning a super regional is not the goal of the team, despite the celebration after Monday’s win.
Van Horn is downplaying it for the players and the fans to a certain extent.
“This isn’t pressure,” he said. “Having two car payments, a house payment, a wife and three kids and having to come home and tell them you just lost your job … that’s pressure.”
His message to the team is really pretty simple and straightforward.
“This is fun,” is what he told them.
See, that’s a big part of what makes Van Horn so good. He’s well aware that just one team has gone back to Omaha after losing in the final there the year before.
That was Virginia in 2015.
And in case you’re wondering, the Cavaliers won it all that year.
???? Tuesday Halftime Pod — featuring Norm DeBriyn
Phil & Tye relive kicking the crap out of Ole Miss, interview Norm DeBriyn, and more!
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: Tuesday
John & Tommy discuss Game 3, DVH’s outlook on the season, Scroggins coming up big and more!
Hogs blow past Rebels to head to Omaha for second straight year
FAYETTEVILLE — For the 10th time in program history and sixth time under Dave Van Horn, Arkansas is headed to the College World Series after Monday afternoon’s 14-1 win over Ole Miss.
Arkansas (46-18) jumped on Ole Miss (41-27) from the start with eight combined runs in the second through fourth innings.
Heston Kjerstad, Casey Opitz and Trevor Ezell all came away with three-hit games.
For Ezell, it capped an extraordinary weekend at the plate as he finished the super regional 7-for-14 (.500) with three doubles, a home run and four RBIs.
On the flip side, Arkansas starting pitcher Patrick Wicklander was not able to make it through two innings as he gave up an early first-inning run and then couldn’t get the final out in the second.
However, Cody Scroggins relieved him with two outs in the second inning and went on to pitch 4.1 innings of scoreless relief, striking out eight, his most in a relief appearance this year.
The Razorbacks will be paired up with Florida State for the first game of the College World Series. Game information including date and time will be announced later.
NCAA Fayetteville Super Regional
Arkansas wins series 2-1
Game 1: Arkansas 11, Ole Miss 2 | Box Score
Game 2: Ole Miss 13, Arkansas 5 | Box Score
Game 3: Arkansas 14, Ole Miss 1 | Box Score
Ole Miss strikes first before Hogs pour it on
The game looked like it might be headed to a slugfest after Ole Miss scored the game’s first run on a Cooper Johnson single, but Arkansas roared back with four runs in the second, three runs in the third, single runs in the fourth and fifth, followed by a five-spot in the sixth inning.
The 14 runs scored matched last year’s super regional elimination game total in the 14-4 and was Arkansas’ largest victory over the Rebels since an 18-4 win in 1996.
Scroggins saves the day
With Patrick Wicklander not making it through the second inning on Monday, redshirt junior Cody Scroggins was called upon to come out of the bullpen earlier than expected.
Scroggins earned every bit of his third victory of the year, giving up just two hits over the next 4.1 innings, while striking out eight and walking none.
It was Scroggins’ longest relief appearance of the year and first of the Super Regional.
Jacob Kostyshock and Matt Cronin both followed Scroggins for the final three innings. Combined, they allowed only three hits and struck out one.
Kjerstad’s bomb solidifies Arkansas’ 10th trip to Omaha
Sophomore Heston Kjerstad was 1-for-9 in the super regional coming in to Monday’s game, but broke out his bat in a big way, going 3-for-4 in the game, including a huge blast over the right field bullpen in the bottom of the fifth inning.
It was Kjerstad’s 16th home run of the year and first since homering in the regional opener against Central Connecticut.
Kjerstad also doubled in his first two at-bats, tying his career-high. His two-bagger in the third inning drove in Arkansas’ fifth and sixth runs of the game. Kjerstad is now third in the SEC in home runs.
Van Horn secures eighth College World Series appearance
Including two appearances with Nebraska in 2001 and 2002 and now seven trips with Arkansas (2004, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2019) to the College World Series, coach Dave Van Horn is now tied for 14th-most appearances in Omaha all-time, tying him with Ron Polk.
He will have the most appearances of any current head coach in the SEC and will have the second-most of any coach in this year’s CWS field.
Win or go home
The Razorbacks are now 4-1 in Super Regional Game 3 scenarios…
2002 – L, 7-4 at No. 2 Clemson (Clemson, S.C.)
2012 – W, 1-0 (10) at No. 4 Baylor (Waco, Texas)
2015 – W, 3-2 vs Missouri State (Fayetteville)
2018 – W, 14-4 vs South Carolina (Fayetteville)
2019 – W, 14-1 vs. Ole Miss (Fayeteville)
Razorback Quotables
“What a great win for our program, the state, the university. I could go on and on. The fans. For us to get back to Omaha for the second year in a row. It’s hard enough just to get there once every now and then. But to get there two years in a row with a bunch of guys that watched on the side last year or maybe weren’t even with us.” — Head coach Dave Van Horn on returning to the College World Series
“What a thrill for me as coach to be a part of this and to watch these guys celebrate and the joy. It’s like I told them at the beginning, the pressure for me is during the season. This is fun for me. I love Omaha. I love going to Omaha. But I really, really, truly mean it when I [say] I want them to get there and I just kind of want to go with them. It was just an incredible, incredible ride, a journey or whatever you want to call it this season. Win or lose it’s going to finish in Omaha and that’s where you want to finish.” — Van Horn on the feeling of taking his team to the CWS in back-to-back years
“Yeah, we knew going into this team it was all hands on deck for both teams. Pitching was depleted, so I just kind of knew all hands on deck when I was getting warmed up. I knew it was my time. I came in the second inning and he just told me the count and said ‘go get ‘em’ and that’s what I did.” — Cody Scroggins on entering the game in the second inning
“It’s just awesome to win that game three and send us back to Omaha this year. It’s been a fun year with all the guys and you know it’s taken everybody on the team. The whole roster. Everybody’s contributed. That’s why we’re a team. It took a team effort and we’re excited to get back to Omaha.” — Heston Kjerstad on getting back to the College World Series
“You know, just playing in the SEC, you’re ready for this moment. You kind of tell with all these SEC teams in these supers, it’s just when you go throughout that grind in the regular season then you’re ready for these moments. You’re ready for these tough games and we proved that right today.” — Casey Opitz on what prepared Arkansas to make another run to the College World Series after the way 2018 ended
Van Horn, Kjerstad, Opitz, Scroggins after clinching another trip to Omaha
Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn joined by right fielder Heston Kjerstad, catcher Casey Opitz and reliever Cody Scroggins after blowing out Ole Miss in super regional final.
Bianco, Dillard, Johnson on losing super regional final
Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco with left fielder Thomas Dillard and catcher Cooper Johnson talking about Arkansas’ dominance in losing out going to Omaha.
