Razorbacks Stifled by LSU Arms; Drop to Loser's Bracket on Monday

Arkansas saw a lot more of Kade Anderson and the LSU bullpen on Saturday night in Omaha than they liked (USA Today photo)

By Noah Darling

In front of a capacity crowd of 25,464 that resembled a bowl of cardinal red, purple and gold fruity pebbles, the milk of the personified cereal was replaced by the ghost of spirits past and tension of victory future. 

As conversations loomed of potential reseeding to adhere to the heralded and highly ranked LSU Tigers and Arkansas Razorbacks, the programs looked to etch their latest installments of high-level baseball at Charles Schwab Field.  The matchup between the national-seeds marked the first time the two highest-ranked teams remaining had been pitted in Omaha’s opening round.

Alas, the Tigers and Razorbacks relished each other’s competition, “I've seen a little bit of discussion about it, or when somebody puts something out, people comment on it. We're going to play each other sometime. I'm not all about it," Arkansas Head Coach Dave Van Horn told reporters. "That's the way the brackets read. If you as a coach want to say, 'well, if we win this one and that one, that's who we'll play there,' probably. That's the way it is, got to play the best if you want to beat the best.”

As ‘the best’ in the field took the field at 6:00 on a toasty day in Omaha, the winner of the Southeastern Conference clash would be slated to match up with UCLA in the winners' bracket on Monday night.  Van Horn turned to Razorback ace Zach Root, who had thrown 13 postseason innings against Creighton and Tennessee, giving up just four hits.  Root paired up with LSU starter Kade Anderson in the highly anticipated meeting between left-handers.  

Both Root and Anderson made quick work of the opposing offense, setting each side down in order.  Root celebrated back to back strikeouts to end his opening frame and open his second, though the accomplishment was short lived.  Luis Hernandez and Derek Curiel drew walks prior to Daniel Dicknson’s near-perfect bunt loading the bases with one out in the inning.  Chris Stanfield’s double drove in the first run of the evening, placing a pin in the anticipated pitcher’s duel.  That pin came dislodged and discarded when a hit-by-pitch and fielder’s choice swelled the LSU lead to 3-0.  

The flurry of LSU runs, coming on just two base hits, prompted an early change for Van Horn.  The talented southpaw in Root exited after pitching just one and two-thirds of an inning, giving up the aforementioned two base hits, two walks and yielding all three runs.  

Still, though, Van Horn felt confident in his team’s ability to remain in the contest.  “The feeling was, we still have seven innings to go, or actually eight, because I think it was the top of the second. We had eight at-bats. So, we were still in it (at) 3-0, not a problem. We can score three real quick.”

Conversely, Anderson remained on cruise control for the Tigers, not yielding his first base hit until the fourth inning, permitting SEC Player of the Year Wehiwa Aloy to break up his no-hit effort.  The Razorbacks found stability with Gabe Gaeckle, turning to their 2025 Opening Day starter to deliver six innings of relief work, giving up three hits and striking out ten. 

“He pitched great," Van Horn said in praising his right-hander. "He did everything we were hoping he would do, held down a pretty good lineup, and gave us a chance to chip away and get back in, but their staff didn't let us.”

Anderson continued to dazzle, striking out seven Arkansas hitters, giving up three hits, with his lone-mistake resulting in Reese Robinett depositing a solo home run over the right field fence. The Junior southpaw tallied 100 pitches prior to giving the ball to flamethrower Chase Shores.  

Shores tallied two strikeouts, utilizing his 100-mile-per-hour repertoire to retire Iredale and Robinett on strikes.  Justin Thomas, Jr. was able to connect against the reliever, though the missile found the glove of Tiger centerfielder Chris Stanfield. 

As the Razorbacks managed a dwindling number of innings against a Tiger pitching staff predicated on velocity, Arkansas hitters mustered one base hit against the bullpen talents of Shores and Casan Evans.  

Evans managed to shut the door on the Razorbacks, dropping the highest ranked team remaining to the loser’s bracket.  Arkansas will look to extend their season against Murray State in a 1 pm CDT elimination game on Monday afternoon.

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