Arkansas wins Fayetteville Regional with 8-3 victory over Creighton

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON


FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas showed up at the yard Sunday night with both the Wood and the metal and thus took home the hardware.

Razorback pitcher Gage Wood fanned a career-high 13 as he and Gabe Gaeckle combined whiff 20 while downing Creighton 8-3 and going unbeaten while winning the NCAA Baseball Tournament Fayetteville Regional.

The Razorbacks (46-13) hit four hone runs in the contest and will host a Super Regional beginning Friday or Saturday against the winner of Monday’s 7 p.m. Tennessee-Wake Forrest game in Knoxville.

“I think we just played extremely well the last few days,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “Today, we just came out and we got to sit around while they played and to me our pitchers were amazing.

“I think obviously Creighton was a little tired from playing earlier (in the day). We didn’t walk anybody, we struck out 20 and we hit three or four home runs. It was just a great game to watch if you were a Razorback fan, I would think, and I am just proud of the team.”

It is the first time in three years that Arkansas has advanced to the Super Regional despite having hosted each time.

“It’s not easy,” Van Horn said. “We have sit here two years in a row and don’t get out of here. We go win somebody else’s Regional (Oklahoma State). In ’21 we got beat in last game by a to Omaha.

“I have kind of been on all sides of it. You never take it for granted at all.”

Arkansas joins Auburn, Florida State, Duke, Louisville, Coastal Carolina, Arizona and West Virginia as teams that have already advanced to one of the eight Super Regional best 2-of-3 match ups.

No. 1 national seed Vanderbilt and No. Texas were both eliminated on Sunday leaving Arkansas as the top seed remaining.

“It like I told the guys when we left (the SEC Tournament in) Hoover, you have got to go earn it,” Van Horn said. “Nobody is going to give you anything. You look who is winning around the country. If you starting thinking you are all that, you will get it handed to you.”

Wood (3-1) was electric while fanning 13 Bluejays, walking no one and allowing three runs on three hits while throwing 89 pitches in six innings.

“It was awesome and it was even better doing it in this uniform and advancing,” Wood said. “It was mostly fast ball and curveball.”

Arkansas catcher and Fayetteville Regional MVP Ryder Helfrick, who had three homers in three games, had obviously a great view on Wood’s effort.

“He has looked good all year since coming back (from injury),” Helfrick said. “He was just competing in the zone and that’s a big thing coming into it.

“It’s still 60 feet, 6 inches and throwing strikes over the plate. Don’t let the game get too big and I think he did a really good job at that. That was awesome to see.”

Wood’s only big mistake of the night was Ben North’s three-run homer in the that cut the Razorbacks lead to 6-3, but he retired the next three batters after that.

“The home run, I think that pitch was like 94 and one of my slower fast balls of the day,” Wood said. “But at the end of the day, he (Helfrick) calls the pitches and I just throw them and it was working tonight.”

Van Horn was pleased with Wood’s finest outing of the season.

“He missed two months, but we’ve been bringing him back slowly,” Van Horn said. “It’s been up and down, or a real good inning, then not a good inning.

“Tonight it was like a little bit of a slow start to the first hitter, then you could just see it getting better and better. He was landing that breaking ball to go with that heater. It messed (the Bluejays) up for a while.

Gaeckle pitched the final three innings while fanning 7 of the 11 batters he faced, allowing two hits and issuing no free passes.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s awesome,” Helfrick said of Gaeckle said. “(Been) playing together since eighth grade, and it was back when he was wild.

“Still can be wild, but to get to be able to do that on this stage, you know, the job’s not finished. Still got more to do. Move on, enjoy this, but get ready for next weekend.”

Logan Maxwell hit two of his team’s four home runs including a two-run shot in the bottom of the first to put the Razorbacks up 2-0.

It came off normal Creighton closer Garrett Langrell (7-2, 13 saves), who started against Arkansas after finishing up an 11-10 win over North Dakota State earlier in the day.

“The moment was awesome,” Helfrick said. “You don’t want to come out slow and to get that in the first was a good push for us. It was fun.”

Justin Thomas’ three-run blast in the second pushed that to 5-0. and Helfrick hit a solo shot as Arkansas extended its lead to 6-0 in the top of the third

Arkansas added single runs on Maxwell’s homer in the fifth and Davalan’s RBI triple in the sixth.

Photo by John D. James