OmaHogs look great against the Tree; Rivalry game in Omaha tonight!
Guest- Connor O’Gara & Bubba Carpenter
Democrat-Gazette’s Tom Murphy looks at Hogs’ matchup with Rebels
Razorbacks face surging Ole Miss on Monday afternoon and you can hear the game on ESPN Arkansas radio stations.
Halftime is LIVE. Hogs beat Stanford and play Rebs tonight in Omaha
11:30 – Connor O’Gara
12:00 – Bubba Carpenter
OmaHogs look great against the Tree; Rivalry game in Omaha tonight; Phil at DJ’s Dugout for the day Call or text, 877-377-6963
Bud Light Next Morning Rush Podcast: Hogs ready to take on Ole Miss in Omaha
Tye and Tommy talk all things Hogs in Omaha as the Razorbacks get ready to take on Ole Miss in the MCWS. Guest Tom Murphy.
Hogs, Rebels know each other very well but now means more
OMAHA, Neb. — Arkansas’ second opponent in the College World Series will be Ole Miss — a team the Hogs know fairly well.
The Razorbacks took two of three games over the Rebels in late April when Arkansas outscored them 12-10 across the three-game series in Fayetteville.
In Game 2 of the series, the Hogs emerged victorious 6-3 and tagged Ole Miss starter Hunter Elliott — who will start Monday’s game — for three runs. Razorbacks outfielder Braydon Webb said it’s advantageous seeing a guy for the second time.
“It helps just building that scouting report and just seeing how the pitches move,” Webb said Sunday. “Every game is different. We’ve got to come out with a good game plan, which we will and just continue to play with that edge that we have.”
Arkansas’ game plan worked to perfection in Saturday’s 17-2 win over Stanford that put the Hogs in the winners bracket in Omaha. Ole Miss downed SEC West foe Auburn 5-1 Saturday night to set up a rematch with the Razorbacks.
The Rebels have not lost a game since the regionals started, and they have outscored opponents 51-12 across that six-game span. It is safe to say Arkansas will see a different Ole Miss team than the one they faced in late April.
“We weren’t sure they were going to get in the tournament,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “They deserved to get in the tournament by how good they were. They finished strong, and they got in, and they’ve been on a roll.”
Elliott is a freshman left-hander who has surrendered just one run in two postseason starts. In his last start against Southern Miss in the super regionals, Elliott threw 7 ⅓ scoreless innings and struck out 10 batters.
“He can spot it up with the best of them,” Van Horn said. “He’s a strike-thrower, he’s mature, strong for his age. He has been really good.”
On top of having a confident starter, the Rebels saved plenty of bullpen arms with a quality start from ace Dylan DeLucia, who threw 7 ⅔ innings of one-run ball in Saturday night’s win over Auburn.
Righty Brandon Johnson will be one of the go-to arms out of the pen for Ole Miss. He has 11 saves, a 4.08 ERA, 21 walks and 66 strikeouts in 39 ⅔ innings pitched.
Freshman right-hander Josh Mallitz threw just 1 ⅓ innings in the win over Auburn, so he would be good to go against the Hogs. Mallitz has been lights out this year with a 1.24 ERA in 29 innings pitched.
The Rebels’ lineup has been hot as of late and it all starts with the powerful first baseman Tim Elko, who is hitting with a .455 average, 10 RBIs and three homers this postseason. Elko was 1-4 with two strikeouts against Auburn on Saturday.
Left fielder Kevin Graham found success at the plate against the Tigers, going 3-5 with two runs scored. Designated hitter Kemp Alderman drove in two of the Rebels’ five runs with a two-RBI single in the first inning.
“I think about Graham more than any of them; he really got that lineup going again,” Van Horn said. “It’s one through nine, there aren’t any easy outs there.”
Ole Miss, unlike Arkansas, has not slugged a ton of longballs to score the majority of its runs. The Rebels are a team that does a good job of manufacturing runs with base hits and keeping pressure on opposing pitchers.
Five of the usual nine starts for Ole Miss are hitting with a sub .300 average this postseason, so the key for Arkansas will be to limit the amount of runners on base. As soon as Ole Miss puts runners on, it usually capitalizes.
“Our comment has always been that if they get it going, they’re as good as anyone in the country,” Van Horn said. “I mean, this team was preseason ranked really high, top-five.”
Arkansas and Ole Miss will get things going at 6 p.m. at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. You can watch the game on ESPN.
Diamond Hawgs S2E43: Hogs demolish Stanford in Omaha, 17-2
Join Mason Choate, Robert Stewart and Christian Cheetham as they break down Arkansas’ 17-2 beatdown of Stanford in the Hogs’ first game of the College World Series. The guys talk about Connor Noland’s gem, the lineup’s success and how the Hogs won.
Hogs rout Stanford in College World Series opener
OMAHA, Neb. — The Diamond Hogs put on one of the most complete performances of 2022 Saturday afternoon, stomping the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal 17-2 to begin their stint at the College World Series.
Senior center fielder Braydon Webb wasted no time getting the offense rolling, belting the first pitch of the game the other way for a triple. He scored on a sacrifice fly by senior designated hitter Brady Slavens, but the Cardinal quickly leveled the score, thanks to center fielder Brock Jones’ leadoff homer.
Stanford could not manage to get anything going at the plate after that, as Arkansas senior right-handed pitcher Connor Noland shut down the highest-ranked team remaining in the tournament. The ace tossed 7 2/3 innings with six hits allowed, a walk and a strikeout, giving up just one more run.
The Razorbacks got him some run support in the fifth inning, exploding for five runs. Graduate right fielder Chris Lanzilli took Stanford starter Alex Williams deep to left field for a three-run homer and a 4-1 lead.
Junior second baseman Robert Moore chased the right-handed Williams from the game with a single, which kept the momentum alive. Moore scored on a wild pitch, and junior left fielder Zack Gregory drove in another run with a single to center field to make it 6-1.
Arkansas tacked on three more runs in the seventh. Moore doubled and scored on a single from senior shortstop Jalen Battles, who came around on a knock by Slavens. Webb walked and scored the ninth run on sophomore third baseman Cayden Wallace’s RBI double.
Freshman first baseman Peyton Stovall became the ninth Razorback to record a hit, driving in two runs with a single up the middle in the eighth.
Senior right-hander Kole Ramage took over for Noland with runners on the corners and two outs. Cardinal first baseman Carter Graham drove in one run — charged to Noland — with a double to right, but Ramage recorded the third out without any further issues.
The Hogs struck six more times in the ninth. Wallace hit a two-run blast with nobody out, Stovall picked up another two-run single and Webb became the ninth Razorback to rack up two hits, driving in two more with his double to center field.
Senior righty Zebulon Vermillion retired the Cardinal in order in the ninth, sealing the emphatic victory for the Hogs.
Arkansas will take on the winner of Ole Miss-Auburn at 6 p.m. Monday at Charles Schwab Field. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN.
Stanford’s Brock Jones on first-inning homer, how Connor Noland responds
It was the only run of the game for the Cardinal until it was too late to matter.
Eric Musselman, players on talented freshmen, team in summer camp
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas’ Davonte Davis sees what this team could become
You got the idea Friday that vision is beyond what they’ve accomplished in his first two seasons.
“They potential is there,” Davis said Friday morning in the first media appearance of summer practices. “All it takes after that is work.”
Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman may be taking care of that, with an emphasis on defense and some talented freshmen looking like leaders.
It’s all positives with star freshmen Nick Smith, Anthony Black and Jordan Walsh. Each of them have had some eye-opening moments in summer workouts.
Smith is the highest-ranked freshman ever for the Hogs.
And he hasn’t disappointed.
“The one thing with Nick is just his leadership, his toughness and how hard he goes,” Musselman said Friday. “You just don’t have a guy his age walk into a college practice and is really, really vocal from the get-go. He’s certainly done that.”
Walsh is another one that has certainly had his share of moments that obviously left the coaches talking after practice.
“He’s like a violent defender because of his aggressiveness,” Musselman said of Walsh. “We want him to continue with that mentality defensively but also play within the concepts that we’re putting in so that he stays out of foul trouble.”
With Musselman, anybody that gets two fouls in the first half gets a longer break because he’s on the bench until after the break. That’s become something of a thing Razorback fans have grown accustomed to seeing.
It’s what Musselman is working to eliminate with Walsh.
“He’s so aggressive defensively sometimes he can put himself where he tries to stab at the ball,” he said. “You’d much rather have a player be over-aggressive than under-aggressive and he innately is an overly-aggressive defender.”
That’s a lot of big words strung together, but the layman’s point of view is he doesn’t need to reach for the ball but don’t stop being aggressive.
Defense has been the biggest positive coming out out of whatever trickle of information leaks out of these summer practices.
Getting the freshmen to be able to play defense down low is the key and Walsh is going to have to hit the weight room. It’s an area where some of the bigger, experienced transfers will contribute the most.
“That’s the last piece of the puzzle,” Musselman said. “To be able to switch 1-through-5 so everybody can go down there and front the post. That’s where we would like to eventually get to.”
Although he was a little late to summer practices, arriving earlier this week, Black has made a huge impression in a short time.
“He comes in and literally knew almost our entire playbook that we put in so far,” Musselman said about Black, who was playing for gold-medal Team USA at the FIBA U18 Americas Championships in Tijuana, Mexico. “Kind of speechless.”
That is an achievement right there. Muss is rarely at a loss for words.
“He literally was asking about third and fourth options on the plays and we’ve got some guys that have been here since Day 1 that are still trying to figure out the second option,” Musselman said about Black.
In the time he spent hanging out with the Oakland Raiders and some other football teams when he was between jobs, Musselman saw something similar.
“Almost like a quarterback room,” he said. “That’s what I thought I was in. I thought I was with an NFL veteran QB who was asking questions and had just missed a couple of OTAs or something.”
Black brings something special to the offensive side of this team.
“I’ve only been around him for 45 minutes on the floor yesterday,” Musselman said, “but I think guys are going to enjoy playing with him, and he’s got a high IQ. He plays both sides of the ball.”
But like the other freshmen, they will have to adapt to the college game in the weight room because, well, it’s a little different.
“We’re asking a lot of our strength and conditioning program this summer to try to get six players up to speed,” Musselman said.
Halftime Pod Presented By Eastside Liquor- June 17, 2022
Phil’s stuck in a sea of Aggies!!! HELP!!! Did Stanford pitcher fuel the fire? Ask Phil presented by Stadium Shoppe and the Golden Hour!
Guest- Aaron Torres
