Hogs take care of business, down Bison 6-2 to advance

Arkansas (44-13) fell behind early on, but then took care of business to advance to the second round on Saturday night at 8 p.m. Arkansas used three pitchers with the second one to the mound, Parker Coil (3-0), getting the decision. Coil pitched 3.1 innings allowing just three hits and striking out four. He followed Aiden Jimenez to the mound and then Landon Beidelschies worked the final 2.0 innings. Dave Van Horn talked about the Hogs responding to early punches from the Bison.

“That’s what our team’s done when we play good,” Van Horn said. “It’s like they don’t get uptight about being down a run or two or three. We know we’re a pretty good offense, and we just wait for a mistake and a big hit. They did that today. And you know, I would have loved to have had 11 or 12 runs, but 4-2 was a little stressful. And we got Cam (Kozeal), got the big hit, that was a big relief for us. As far as thinking what we were going to do, we’re going to get these guys loose and gave us an opportunity to just keep the lefties in there instead of going to a couple of our right handers.”

Arkansas broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the second inning and never looked back. Reese Robinett walked to start the inning. He went to third on a one-out single by Charles Davalan. Robinett then scored on a sacrifice flyout by Wehiwa Aloy for a 3-2 lead.

The Bison scored in the top of the first when Jake Schaffner walked to start the game. Then with two outs, Sam Canton singled to left field off Jimenez for a 1-0 lead.

The Hogs scored two in the bottom of the first when Davalan and Wehiwa Aloy each singled to start the inning. Logan Maxwell’s sacrifice fly allowed Davalan to tag and score. Aloy scored on a single by Kozeal, who had three hits and knocked in four runs in the game.

Colten Becker led off the top of the second with a solo home run that tied the game at 2.

In the bottom of the third, Ryder Helfrick singled to start the inning. He stole second and then scored on a Kozeal double for a 4-2 lead.

The final two runs in the game in the bottom of the fifth when Kuhio Aloy singled with two outs and no one on base. Kozeal followed with a two-run blast over the fence in right center field. Van Horn liked what Kozeal did against Bison starter Nolan Johnson.

“A little bit,” Van Horn said. “The fastball runs back into the lefties, so he’s trying to throw it out over the plate, other side, it can run down the middle. And the fact that it takes away maybe his offspeed a little bit as far as the changeup. And then the breaking ball, that’s his pitch, really. Doesn’t land it enough, I think. That’s kind of what Cam was insinuating, that you kind of as a left-handed hitter maybe just kind of look for something hard, even though he hit a slider out of the park. That was a good guess by you that it was off-speed. But yeah, that’s probably the main thing against him.”

Jimenez worked 3.2 innings allowing five hits, two runs, walked four and struck out three. Coil and Beidelschies combined to allow four hits and no runs while striking out four each. Neither allowed a walk,

“Yeah, I mean, obviously, in a perfect world it would have been nice for Aiden to go five,” Van Horn said. “We would have let him go, probably, to 80 pitches. I think he threw 60 something. But it wasn’t an easy 60. It was a rough 60. And so it was like he threw 80-85 to him. We just felt like, when I took the ball from him I said, that’s enough pitches. And as far as the bullpen, whatever we needed to do. And I thought those guys did a good job. I think they might both be an option to bring back. For sure on Landon.”

North Dakota State only had to use two pitchers. Starter Johnson went 5.0 innings allowing eight hits, six runs, two walks and fanned a pair. Landon Koenig worked the final 3.0 innings and only allowed one hit, walked a hitter and struck out three Hogs. Coach Tyler Oakes praised both teams after the game.

“I thought it was a really good college baseball game,” Oakes said. “Great environment, I thought our guys came ready to play and it was really good to see us score early on them. Obviously they came back with the two in the first, but I thought our guys had really good at-bats.”

North Dakota State (20-33) will face the Kansas-Creighton loser on Saturday at 2 p.m. in an elimination game.