Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco, starting pitcher Doug Nikhazy and first baseman Cole Zabowski talk about coming back from Saturday’s loss to set up winner-take-all game Monday.
One win away from getting to Omaha, Hogs staying focused
Isaiah Campbell saved one of his best pitching performances for his last outing at Baum-Walker Stadium on Saturday.
Getting some solid fielding and big hits helped.
Arkansas bombed Ole Miss in the first game of the super regional, 11-2. Now they find themselves a game away from getting to Omaha.
The last win and last out often are the hardest to get in these baseball series. Dave Van Horn and all the players know it, too.
“We’ve still got unfinished business,” Campbell said after 8.1 innings where he struck out seven while giving up five hits.
It was an emotional outing, probably even for Van Horn, who never shows a lot of that one way or the other. Many of the 11,350 announced crowd (it seemed like more) probably thought when he walked off in the eighth that was it.
He and pitching coach Matt Hobbs were talking about it when Campbell put in his two cents.
“He came running down around the corner and said, ‘I want to finish this up,’ and I said, ‘okay, you can go back out, but you’re going to get one out,’ and he said, ‘okay,'” was how Van Horn described it later.
Things started a little rocky, with Campbell giving up a homer to the Rebels’ second hitter, Grae Kessinger.
Nobody really expected Campbell to be rattled.
“Just because I got one out of the yard wasn’t going to mean he was going to give in,” Kessinger said later.
Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco knew it coming in.
“He is a true ace,” he said.
Sunday, Van Horn is going with freshman Connor Noland, who will be going against the Rebels’ best pitcher by the numbers in Doug Nikhazy.
Van Horn would probably be happy with a repeat of the way everybody played around Campbell.
“We played really good defense and our offense was clicking pretty good,” he said. “We did a nice job of fouling off a lot of pitches with a lot of good two-strike swings. We got pitch counts up on (Will) Ethridge.”
But the recurring theme Van Horn has been preaching comes into play again.
“Just like last week, I told the players after the second win they still hadn’t done anything,” he said. “It’s nice winning games, but I’ve been on both sides of it – coming back and winning them and not finishing them out.
“So same as always. Go home, take a shower, eat, hang out, watch some baseball and get up and do it again.”
The advice would probably hold true for the fans, too, who showed up in force Saturday.
In case you’re wondering, Bianco wasn’t too concerned about his team.
“They get it,” he said. “They realize that it comes down to controlling what you can control. I know it sounds so mundane and coach-speak, but it’s the truth.
“Tomorrow it is about winning the first pitch, winning the first out and moving on.”
Ole Miss probably won’t just show up and yield. In the postgame Saturday, Bianco wasn’t getting drawn into it talking about the series in March where the Rebels won the last two games in Fayetteville to take the series.
But for them, they have to win or their season is over.
For the Hogs?
They know how heavy the weight can get in a must-win game … all the way to the final out.
Razorbacks’ women bring home 45th national title for track teams
AUSTIN, Texas — Coach Lance Harter’s crew battled, scrapped and fought for every point Saturday night to earn the right to bring home the fourth team title in program history — the second this year — making it the 45th NCAA title between the men’s and women’s track and field programs.
The crowd was electric heading into the final event of the night as Arkansas and Southern Cal stood tied at 56-points apiece and with both programs holding an entry in the 4×400-meter relay.
Arkansas prevailed, scoring 64 points to USC’s 57 to wrap up the 2019 NCAA outdoor season.
The day for Arkansas’ started with the 4×100-meter relay of Tamara Kuykendall, Payton Chadwick, Janeek Brown, and Kiara Parker who got the night off to a quick start as they recorded the second-fastest time in program history of 42.79 that trails only the school record run they pieced together in the prelims of 42.65 in the semifinals.
Devin Clark turned in an All-American performance in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, finishing seventh in the final running 9:55.22.
Clark ran with the front pack for most of the race before falling off the pace over the final 800-meters where she settled in for her All-American finish.
Janeek Brown captured the first NCAA title of her young career running the second-fastest time in NCAA 100-meter hurdles history at 12.40, missing the collegiate record by one one-hundredth of a second.
The time by Brown is currently the No. 1 time in the world for the sophomore from Kingston, Jamacia. Senior Payton Chadwick competed alongside Brown taking eighth-place in 13.05 seconds.
Kiara Parker came through in the 100-meter final in a HUGE way, breaking the program record in the 100-meters by shaving off two one-hundredths of a second from Jada Baylark’s 2018 record, running 11.02 seconds for fifth-place.
LSU’s Sha’Carri Richardson took the event in a collegiate record time of 10.75.
Kethlin Campbell grabbed a fourth-place finish in the 400-meters with a brisk run of 51.09 seconds.
The sophomore transfer from Duke capped her first season in Fayetteville having earned First-Team honors at both the NCAA Indoor Championships and the Outdoor NCAA Championships while moving herself to No. 4 all-time at Arkansas in the 400-meters with a lifetime-best of 51.03 and running key legs on both the indoor and outdoor mile relays.
History was made in the final of the 200-meters as Janeek Brown finally moved past Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
Brown, who ran an NCAA all-time No. 2 mark of 12.40 in to win the 100-meter hurdle title earlier in the day, sprinted to a time of 22.40 in the 200-meters finishing fourth while posting the fastest 100mH/200m one-day combo in world history.
Brown’s time also broke the program record held by multi-time Olympian Veronica Campbell-Brown of 22.41 by one one-hundredth of a second.
Taylor Werner ran a race of a lifetime in the 5,000-meter final running with the lead over the final lap before fading to an NCAA Runner-up finish in a time of 15:51.24.
Werner left everything she had on the track as she moved to the lead with 500-meters to go and carried the lead until about 50-meters as Colorado’s Dani Jones — the NCAA Cross Country Champion — ran by besting Werner by a little over a second.
Heading into the final event Arkansas and USC were tied with 56-points apiece, and each team with an entry to the 4×100-meter relay.
With Springdale native Payton Chadwick on the carry for the Razorbacks, a smart move by the senior on the third leg kept Arkansas out of a potential disaster as Alabama and USC ran into each other with the Trojans putting the baton on the track.
Chadwick swung wide, keeping the Razorbacks in contention for the event title as well as securing the team championships.
Chadwick handed off to the 400-meter All-American Campbell who split a 49.79 — the fastest leg of any relay in the final — to surge Arkansas from fourth-place to runner-up as the quartet ran the second-fastest time in program history stopping the clock at 3:25.89 a mere three-tenths (.30) of a second behind the National Champion relay team from Texas A&M.
FINAL TEAM SCORES (top-10)
| PLACE | WOMEN [21 out of 21 scored] | SCORE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Arkansas | 64 |
| 2 |  |
USC | 57 |
| 3 |  |
LSU | 43 |
| 4 |  |
Texas A&M | 38 |
| 5 |  |
Oregon | 34 |
| 6 |  |
Florida | 32 |
| 7 |  |
Alabama | 29 |
| 8 |  |
New Mexico | 27 |
| 9 |  |
Colorado | 24 |
| 10 |  |
Texas | 20 |
| 10 |  |
South Carolina | 20 |
| 10 |  |
Stanford | 20 |
| 10 |  |
Florida State | 20 |
Campbell’s final home outing paces Hogs to blowout over Rebels
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas had an offensive explosion Saturday in the first game of the NCAA Super Regional, as they beat Ole Miss, 11-2, behind 11 hits, three home runs and four players with multi-hit performances.
With the victory, the Razorbacks take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series with game two scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPNU.
You can hear Phil Elson and Bubba Carpenter with the call on ESPN Arkansas 95.3 in the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home.
A win on Sunday would give Arkansas its 10th trip to the College World Series in program history.
Arkansas (45-17) jumped on Ole Miss starter Will Etheridge for four runs in the first and two runs in the second, allowing Razorback starter Isaiah Campbell to work with a big lead.
The Hogs ended up chasing Etheridge in the fourth after he put two runners on by a hit by pitch and a single. Those two runners later scored on Matt Goodheart’s three-run blast to left-center, making Etheridge responsible for eight runs, six being earned.
Trevor Ezell finished with the top hitting line in the game, going 3-for-5 with one RBI, a home run. Casey Martin, Matt Goodheart and Dominic Fletcher all had two hits each.
Goodheart drove in three, two off of his home run, while Fletcher finished with one RBI.
The 11-2 victory is Arkansas’ second largest postseason victory in the last three years and the third-most runs ever scored in a super regional. It’s also the Razorbacks largest victory over Ole Miss since an 11-1 win in 2014.
Saturday’s game was played in front of 11,350 fans, the largest postseason paid attendance in Baum-Walker Stadium history and sixth-most all time. It’s the fourth-straight postseason game that the attendance has topped 10,000 or more.
NCAA Fayetteville Super Regional
Arkansas leads 1-0
Game 1: Arkansas 11, Ole Miss 2 | Box Score
Game 2: Arkansas vs Ole Miss (H) – 2 p.m.
Game 3: (if necessary): Arkansas (H) vs Ole Miss – 3 p.m.
Campbell gives Baum-Walker Stadium a curtain call
Redshirt junior Isaiah Campbell couldn’t have given the fans at Baum-Walker Stadium a better final showing on his home field than he did today.
Campbell gave up just two runs, both solo home runs, over 8.1 innings, a career long, while striking out seven with one walk.
Ole Miss got to Campbell early with the first inning solo homer by Grae Kessinger, but the Olathe, Kansas, native settled in after that to twirl seven more scoreless frames before coming back for the ninth.
It was Campbell’s second-straight start of eight or more innings and one walk. He easily earned the victory for his 12th of the year, which is third-most ever in a single season by a Razorback.
Longball leads Hogs
For the 11th time this year, Arkansas showed off its power, hitting three or more home runs, as Jack Kenley, Trevor Ezell and Matt Goodheart all went deep in the game.
Kenley’s three-run home run in the first capped a four-run inning. It was his 13th home run of the year and first three-run home run. Goodheart homered in the fourth after Ole Miss went to the bullpen to replace Etheridge with Tyler Myers.
It was his fifth homer of the year and third in the last five games. Ezell hit his home run in the sixth, his 10th, to lead off the inning and build Arkansas’ lead to 10-1.
Welcome back Casey Martin
After going 1-for-23 in his last six games, shortstop Casey Martin broke out of that slump on Saturday, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
His single in the first inning followed Ezell’s lead-off double to put the pressure on Etheridge before the first out was recorded. He later scored on Jack Kenley’s homer.
He brought in Arkansas’ fifth run of the game on a sacrifice fly in the second and later drove in Christian Franklin with a single up the middle in the fourth.
It was Martin’s 24th multi-hit game of the season and first since May 18 against Texas A&M.
Razorback quotables
“Just a really good job by our team overall. We played really good defense and our offense was clicking pretty good. We did a nice job of fouling off a lot of pitches with a lot of good two-strike swings. We got pitch counts up on (Will) Ethridge. Obviously, Isaiah (Campbell) was really good today just locating and working ahead. I think he had one walk, seven Ks and pitched to contact when he needed to. That allowed him to get really deep in the game. He gave up a solo homer to the second hitter of the game and it didn’t faze him. He did a great job of getting out of that inning. He kept the same demeanor, went with the same approach and kept attacking.” — Coach Dave Van Horn on Arkansas’ 11-2 win over Ole Miss
“I kind of wanted to get him out with maybe two outs in the eighth and then we said, ‘Aw, let’s just let him finish,’ because I wanted him to get a little bit of an ovation. It was going to be his last outing here at home. Then he got a quick out and Coach (Matt) Hobbs and I had decided, ‘That’s it.’ I think he was right at a hundred pitches or so. He came running down around the corner and said, ‘I want to finish this up,’ and I said, ‘ok, you can go back out, but you’re going to get one out, and he said, ‘ok.’ So that’s kind of what went down there.” — Van Horn on Isaiah Campbell going back out for the ninth inning
“It feels like we haven’t really done anything. Just like last week, I told the players after the second win they still hadn’t done anything. It’s nice winning games, but I’ve been on both sides of it – coming back and winning them and not finishing them out. So same as always. Go home, take a shower, eat, hang out, watch some baseball and get up and do it again.” — Van Horn on his team taking a 1-0 lead in the super regional
“Nothing changed after that home run. In all honesty, I made a pretty good pitch inside that got in on his hands. He works out and is a strong kid and a really good batter. He got enough on it and got it out. But no, it didn’t faze me at all. I just took a deep breath, got back in the strike zone and just kept taking one pitch at a time.” — Isaiah Campbell on bouncing back after the home run
“He just shook my hand and said good job today. Just proud of me pretty much. Just walking off for the last time on the mound at Baum, it was special. A lot of emotions when I was walking off that mound, just seeing the fans giving me a standing ovation, it was awesome. I’m going to miss this place and everything, but we’ve still got unfinished business.” — Campbell on exiting the game in the ninth to a standing ovation
Van Horn, Campbell, Ezell after opening super regional with win
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn, starting pitcher Isaiah Campbell and first baseman Trevor Ezell recapping the Hogs’ starting the super regional with an 11-2 win over Ole Miss.
Bianco, Ethridge, Kessinger after losing to Hogs in first game
Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco, starting pitcher Will Ethridge and shortstop Grae Kessinger on how they will put the 11-2 loss behind them in the super regional opener.
Nine Razorbacks close out careers with All-American honors
AUSTIN, Texas — Arkansas wrapped up the 2019 outdoor season with a 15th-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships fueled by three All-American performances Friday afternoon.
The Razorbacks scored 19-points to bring home yet another top-20 finish at the outdoor championships finishing in a tie for 15th-place with North Carolina A&T.
A beacon of consistency at the NCAA Championships year in and year out, Arkansas leaned heavy on their Friday finalist to contribute to the team total and they came through when it mattered the most.
Hogs coach Chris Bucknam:
“I’m just extremely proud of this team. We battled, fought, and crawled our way to a 15th-place finish after entering the meet outside the top-20 in the rankings, a similar scenario to the indoor championships.
It’s like I said before after the SEC meet, our culture and our DNA is strong, we compete and fight and our mission is to get back on the rung. we want to be No. 1 again and we had a championship level effort by all our guys and hopefully, this is a catapult to even better things next year.
Our 4×100 had two freshmen on it and they turned in a season-best. Cameron [Griffith] beat the defending NCAA Champion and the defending indoor national champion and nearly won it all with a great run today.
I’m just proud of all these guys and looking forward to next year.”
The 4×100-meter relay of Josh Oglesby, Kris Hari, Tre’Bien Gilbert, and Roy Ejiakuekwu ran a season-best time of 38.58 — the fourth-best performance in program history — to earn a fourth-place finish at the meet.
Florida, the NCAA Champion in the event erased a year old record set by Houston last season at 38.17 as the sprinted across the line in 37.97 to set a facility record, meet record and a collegiate record.
Cameron Griffith capped his career at Arkansas with a huge effort down the final 100-meters to walk down the defending NCAA Champion Ollie Hoare of Wisconsin at the line, securing a third-place finish.
Griffith finished with a time of 3:42.14 to earn the highest finish of his career at the NCAA Championships. This marked the second-career first team All-American performance for Griffith in the 1,500-meters.
Arkansas would have to wait until the final event of the day to step on the track one more time.
The 4×400-meter relay team of John Winn, Hunter Woodhall, Jalen Brown, and Rhayko Schwartz saved their best for last, running a season-best time of 3:03.40 — the fourth-fastest in program history — for seventh-place.
Moore bounces back from injury for third at NCAA Championships
AUSTIN, Texas — Senior Gabe Moore battled back from an injury at the SEC Championships to earn an All-American finish in the decathlon to close out his career Thursday night at the NCAA Championships.
Moore capped a spectacular career with a third-place finish in the Decathlon scoring 7,780-points over 10 events to ear his First-Team All-American honors.
Following a runner-up finish at the Indoor Championships, Moore trekked through the regular season eying a chance to earn the SEC title.
An untimely injury during the pole vault at the SEC Decathlon caused Moore to score zero points in two events and left him with a fifth-place finish at the conference meet.
A month later, Moore returned to action at the NCAA Championships to close out his career on a very high note.
“I can’t tell you how thrilled I am for him for that kind of effort over the last two days,” said coach Chris Bucknam. “He was unable to complete the Decathlon at the SEC meet which was devastating enough for him as a senior, that was a tough pill to swallow. But our training staff jumped right in a went to work.
“I can’t say enough about our medical staff and the hard work and dedication they put in with Gabe to get him back to competition shape. Between Mario [Sategna] and our training staff, they did a fantastic job of getting him ready to go physically and mentally in a little over three and a half weeks.
“Not only did Gabe do everything he could do but he did it with a smile and a great attitude. He never doubted his coach or the rehab that he went through to get back.
“I know this was a meet he wanted to win, he was the runner-up at the indoor meet, but to go through what he did at the SEC meet and battle back to a third-place finish was one of the great efforts I’ve seen in my coaching career.
“I’m really proud of him, and can’t say enough about what he did for this program and his teammates.”
Moore posted marks of 15.02 (110mH), 46.21m/151-7 (discus), 4.41m/14-5.50 (pole vault), 59.53m/195-3 (javelin), and 4:44.34 in the 1,500-meters.
Arkansas will return to the track tomorrow where the 4×100-meter relay, Cameron Griffith in the 1,500-meters and the 4×400-meter relay will compete in the finals of the NCAA Championships.
It’s Ole Miss standing in Razorbacks’ path to another Omaha trip
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas is set for its eighth Super Regional appearance in program history this weekend, welcoming Ole Miss to town with a College World Series appearance on the line at Baum-Walker Stadium.
The Hogs and Rebels will face off in a best-of-three series starting on Saturday with first pitch set for 11 a.m. on ESPN. Game two will be at 2 p.m. on Sunday on ESPNU.
If necessary, game three will be on Monday at 3 p.m., on ESPN2.
You can listen to all of the games on ESPN Arkansas 95.3 in the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home.
Matchup: 5-seed Arkansas vs. 12-seed Ole Miss
TV: ESPN (Sat.), ESPNU (Sun.), ESPN2 (Mon.) >> WatchESPNApp
Talent: Clay Matvick (PXP), Todd Walker (Analyst)
Radio: Razorback Sports Network from Learfield/IMG College
Probable Starters for Game One: (ARK) RHP Isaiah Campbell (11-1) vs. (OM) RHP Will Etheridge (7-6)
Arkansas is fresh off a clean sweep of the Fayetteville Regional with wins over Central Connecticut (11-5) and two wins over TCU (3-1, 6-0).
The Razorback starting pitching was on point throughout the weekend as the trio of Isaiah Campbell, Connor Noland and Patrick Wicklander combined for a 0.99 ERA over 18.1 innings and struck out 17.
Campbell tied his career-best outing, going eight innings with eight strikeouts against the Horned Frogs.
The Razorbacks are making their eighth appearance in a super regional in school history and first time in back-to-back years.
This week will mark the fourth time Arkansas has ever hosted the super regional round (2004, 2015, 2018, 2019) and are 6-2 in those games.
On the flip side, Ole Miss comes in as the winner of the Oxford Regional, sweeping the field in their own right with wins over Jacksonville State (16-2, 19-4) and Clemson (6-1).
The Rebels are appearing in their sixth Super Regional and first since 2014.
This will be the sixth time Arkansas and Ole Miss have faced off this year, including a three-game series at Baum Stadium and two games in the SEC Tournament.
The Rebels are the only team to beat the Razorbacks in a series at home this year and have won each of their last two series in Baum-Walker Stadium (2017, 2019).
The two teams split a pair of games at the SEC Tournament before Ole Miss reached the SEC Tournament final for the second-straight year.
What’s at stake
The winner of the Fayetteville Super Regional will advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
The team that advances will play the winner of the Baton Rouge Super Regional between LSU and Florida State in their first game of the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park.
Saturday’s probable starter — RHP Isaiah Campbell
Redshirt junior right-hander Isaiah Campbell will get the ball for Arkansas’ opening game of the 2019 NCAA Super Regional, making his 17th start of the year.
Campbell has been the Hogs’ No. 1 starter from the season opener and has solidified himself as one of the best pitchers in the nation.
Last week, he had his best outing of the season, going eight innings against TCU and giving up just one run on four hits with one walk and eight strikeouts.
It was his 13th quality start of the year. Campbell was drafted in the Competitive Balance Round B earlier this week to the Seattle Mariners, No. 76 overall.
Player to watch — INF Jack Kenley
Junior infielder Jack Kenley has had a career year at the plate this season and its continued into the postseason.
In last week’s regional, Kenley had two hits in all three games, leading the team with a .600 average with two doubles and two RBIs. After hitting .133 his freshman year and .222 his sophomore year, Kenley has exploded to hit .324 this season with 12 home runs and 50 RBIs.
Kenley didn’t have a home run before this season, but is now third on the team in longballs and was drafted in the eighth round by the Detroit Tigers earlier this week.
Fayetteville Super Regional Schedule
Saturday, June 8
Game 1 – Ole Miss vs. Arkansas (ESPN) | LIVE STATS | WATCH
Sunday, June 9
Game 2 – Arkansas vs. Ole Miss – 2 p.m. CT (ESPNU)
Monday, June 10
Game 3 (if necessary) – Ole Miss vs. Arkansas – 3 p.m. CT (ESPN2)
RAZORBACK PRIME 9
• Arkansas is playing in its eighth NCAA Super Regional in school history and hosting for the fourth time. Fayetteville has hosted Super Regionals in 2018 (vs. South Carolina), 2015 (vs. Missouri St.) and 2004 (vs. Florida St.).
• The Razorbacks won a share of the SEC Western Division title for the second-straight year, finishing with a 20-10 conference record. It’s Arkansas’ sixth division title in school history and fifth under Dave Van Horn.
• The Razorbacks swept through the NCAA Fayetteville Regional last week and has won four of their last six games. Over that stretch, the Hogs have a 2.42 ERA and opponents are hitting just .157 against the Razorback pitching staff.
• Arkansas and Ole Miss have never faced off in the NCAA Tournament, but the Razorbacks have faced SEC opponents nine times in the tournament and are 4-5 in those games.
• A Super Regional win this weekend over Ole Miss will give Arkansas its 10th College World Series appearance in school history and sixth under head coach Dave Van Horn.
• Over the last three seasons, Arkansas has had the pleasure of playing 14 NCAA Tournament games at Baum-Walker Stadium. In those 14 games, the Razorbacks have hit .301 as a team and are averaging 6.9 runs per game.
• Combined last week, Arkansas starters (Campbell, Noland, Wicklander) had a combined 0.99 ERA over 18.1 innings and struck out 17, while walking only 2 for an 8.5 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
• Isaiah Campbell had his best outing of the year and tie for his best of his career last week, going eight innings against TCU and giving up just one run on four hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. It was his 13th quality start this year.
• The Razorbacks weren’t expected to hit as many home runs as last year’s record-setting team (98), but have still set a good pace going into the NCAA Regionals. As a team, Arkansas has hit 81 home runs, which ranks second in the SEC and 11th in the nation.
Van Horn after Hogs’ final practice getting ready for super regional
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn talked with the media after the final practice session before squaring off with Ole Miss on Saturday morning.
???? Friday Halftime Pod — Featuring David Kellum (6-7-2019)
Phil Elson & Tye Richardson if the season is a failure is the Hogs don’t end up in Omaha, David Kellum, and more!
