Hogs sweep Vols to win Super Regional, Omaha next

FAYETTEVILLE — No. 3 Arkansas punched its ticket to the College World Series with an impressive and dominating 11-4 win over Tennessee Sunday to sweep through the Fayetteville Super Regional at Baum-Walker Stadium in front of 10,273 fans.

Arkansas is the highest seed remaining in the field and will face the LSU-West Virginia winner in the first game in Omaha. LSU leads West Virginia 1-0 with Game 2 set for a late game on Sunday night. But in Fayetteville on Sunday, it was Logan Maxwell and Charles Davalan who came up big for the Hogs. An emotional Dave Van Horn praised his team after the game.

“Yeah, just so happy for everybody involved with the program,” Van Horn said. “Especially more than anything the players because they’re the ones that do all of the work. They’re the ones that win the games. So happy that they’re going to finish this season in Omaha… (tears). I don’t know… It just means a lot.”

The Hogs broke a scoreless tie in the top of the third when Justin Thomas Jr. walked to start the inning. Davalan followed with a towering shot over the fence in right field for a 2-0 lead. Davalan talked about what it meant to see Van Horn pleased and emotional after the win.

“I mean, it’s cool,” Davalan said. “We want to win a natty bad for him. He deserves it. So yeah, we’ll give it all we got in Omaha for him, for sure.”

Gage Wood pitched out of a jam in the bottom of the third. Tennessee loaded the bases on three consecutive singles. However, Wood got Andrew Fischer to ground into a double play and then retired the next hitter to limit the Vols to just one run.

But it was the top of the fourth when the trip to Omaha became looking very likely. Cam Kozeal scored from third on a wild pitch to put Arkansas up 3-1. But with two outs and the bases loaded, Maxwell lifted a grand slam out of the park to put the Razorbacks up 7-1. Maxwell was told that Tennessee’s AJ Russell thought his blast was just going to be a long flyout.

“I thought the same thing,” Maxwell said.

The game stayed that way until the top of the seventh. Maxwell doubled to start the inning. With one out, Maxwell scored on a Kuhio Aloy single to center field. After Kuhio Aloy’s single, Tennessee’s pitchers walked Kozeal, Brent Ireland, Reese Robinett and Thomas to put two more runs on the board for a 10-1 lead.

Iredale hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth. In the bottom of the ninth, Tony Vitello used five pinch hitters. Chris Newstrom doubled with one out. He then scored when Jay Abernathy hit a two-run blast off Christian Foutch to finish the scoring.

The Razorbacks used five pitchers with Cole Gibler (3-1), the second one up, getting the win. Wood started then Aiden Jimenez followed Gibler. Parker Coil and Foutch also worked. Wood pitched 3.1 innings, allowing three hits, one run and two walks. Gibler pitched 2.2 innings allowing one hit, walking one and fanning four. The five combined to allow eight hits, struck out 10 and walked four.

Tennessee ace Liam Doyle (10-4) once again took the loss. He started and pitched 3.2 innings allowing five hits, five runs, walking two and striking out six. The Vols used seven pitchers who allowed 10 hits, struck out eight and walked eight. Davalan talked about the home run he hit off Doyle.

“Yeah, I mean, I think he went slider then like another ball, and then mound visit I’m pretty sure,” Davalan said. “So I knew I was going to get a heater. I mean, 2-0. I thought it was upper 90s. I knew I was going to… I kind of sold out to be honest. So if he threw anything else, probably would have looked kind of foolish, but got a heater.”

Arkansas (48-13) will head to the College World Series for the first time in three years. Tennessee (46-19), the defending national champion, sees its season end in Fayetteville. Arkansas went undefeated in the Fayetteville Regional and Super Regional. They haven’t lost since dropping a 5-2 decision to Ole Miss at the SEC Tournament.

“I think that we were all disappointed that we didn’t win that game against Ole Miss in the tournament,” Van Horn said. “We just didn’t do anything. We got there, we worked out, spent the night, we play, we lose, we come back. It’s kind of like, did we even go? We just didn’t play good. That first inning, we hadn’t done that all year. We had two double play balls, we didn’t turn any of them. It turned it into what, three runs, five runs (five runs) I don’t remember. We were just chasing them the whole game.

“But it gave me the opportunity to talk about how one play or one pitch, I always talk about, can change the whole game. But to come back, focus in, because obviously the last couple of years, the team didn’t focus in. They were drifting, thinking about this, thinking about what am I gonna be doing, am I getting drafted. This team, man, they stayed hooked up. Locked up. We’ve talked about that, but they did it. And they’re talented. But it doesn’t surprise me that we went 5-0.”