LSU’s Anderson handcuffs Arkansas in CWS opener

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

An Arkansas baseball team that had been one of the best offenses in the country all season didn’t show up Saturday night at the College World Series.


LSU ace Kade Anderson (11-1) pitched seven dominant innings as the Tiger downed the Razorbacks 4-1 in an opening-round match up at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.

Anderson and relievers Chase Shores and Casan Evans allowed just three runners to reach second base while limiting Arkansas to season lows of one run and four hits.

“I thought as far as — I thought our pitching was incredible, “ Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “Obviously Anderson and Shores did a tremendous job. And they finished it up with Evans in the ninth.

“We had a couple of chances to score some runs and we didn’t…Really it boiled down to Anderson. He didn’t give us anything. He’s 11-1 because he’s really good. That’s all
I’ve got.”

Arkansas (48-14) will return to action Monday against Murray State (44-15) in a 1 p.m. elimination game.

The Rzorbncks will have to win games Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to advance to next Saturday’s opener of a best 2 of 3 championship series.

“Obviously we need to move on from this one and get over it and not think too far down the road,” Van Horn said. “We’ve just got to take care of business on Monday.

“We need to play good Monday because if we don’t there’s no Tuesday. If we can get through Monday, we’ve got Tuesday. We’ve got to do the same thing.

“You just can’t get all uptight about it. These guys, they’ve come back and won games. They’ve done some great things this year. So that’s what I told them.

“We’ve got a bullpen full of pitchers. We’ve got a bunch of hitters that can hit. They
didn’t have a good night. We need to move on and get ready for Monday.”

LSU (49-15), beating Arkansas for the third time in four meetings this season, will face UCLA in the winners’ bracket Monday at 6 p.m.

LSU head coach Jay Johnson was obviously pleased with the win, which came despite his team having just six hits of its own.

“Great win for our team,” Johnson said. “Outstanding performance against a great team in Arkansas.

“Start with Kade, outstanding performance. What we’ve been accustomed to on the opening night of every weekend this year. I thought he got stronger as the game went along.

“I thought he executed pitches at a really high level, which you have to do against that offense.

“Offensively, we did just enough.”

Anderson fanned seven, walked two and allowed three hits, one being Reese Robinett’s sixth-inning homer that accounted for his team’s lone run.

The only other hits Anderson allowed were Wehiwa Aloy’s lead off single in the fourth that broke up this no-hitter and Omaha native Cam Kozeal’s lead off single in the eighth.

“He really just doesn’t leave the ball over the middle of the plate,” Van Horn said. “Even his misses are close. He missed a lot of pitches away to righties that you could tell he was a little frustrated that it was that tight.

“Changes speeds just enough. The first time we faced him, he struck us out more, but we hit him harder. When we hit it, we hit it hard, and we scored some runs on him. Tonight, when we hit it, we didn’t hit it real hard most of the time.

“He’s a really good pitcher, polished. I think he’s going to continue to just get a lot better as he gets bigger and stronger. You can just see the projection there.

Kozeal was the last batter Anderson faced.

Charles Davalan’s lead off single off Evans in the bottom in the ninth was Arkansas’ only other hit.

LSU got three of its runs in the third off Arkansas starter Zach Root (8-6) via two hits, two walks, a hit batter and run-scoring fielder’s choice.

Root walked back-to-back hitters with one out and then Daniel Dickinson reached on a perfect bunt single to load the bases.

Chris Stansfield delivered an RBI single – the only ball that left the infield in inning to put LSU up 2-0.

It grew to 3-0 when Root hit Michael Braswell III with a bases-loaded pitch and then Josh Pearson got a run home with a fielder’s choice.

“It’s tough, unless you get out of it,” Van Horn said. “And he didn’t. Gave up a hit after that. Maybe one or two runs, but that third run, that was pretty tough.

“You’re thinking he’d already thrown 20-some pitches that inning, 25, upper 20s, I’m not sure what.

“Yeah, just the conditions and who we’re facing and who’s on the mound, it made those two walks look big, and they were.”

Gabe Gaecke replaced Root at that point and was brilliant in relief, fanning an Arkansas CWS record 10 while going six innings and allowing just one run and three hits.

After Root tossed just 38 pitchers, Root came in and threw 90, 60 of which were strikes.

“He pitched great,” Van Horns said of Gaeckle. “ 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.”

Van Horn thought there was plenty of time to get back into and win the game.

“The feeling was we still have seven nnings to go or actually eight because I think it was the top of the second,” Van Horn said. We had eight at-bats. So, we were still in it 3-0, not a problem. We can score three real quick.

“Maybe not tonight with the way they pitched or the way the wind was blowing, but it can happen. I think we were just trying to chip away.”

Robinett’s solo homer leading off the bottom of the sixth cut Arkansas’ deficit to 3-1.

LSU recaptured its three-run lead in the eighth when Derrick Curiel singled off reliever Cole Gibler.

Curiel’s single plated Steven Milam, who led off eighth with a double off Gaeckle before he got Luis Hernandez to pop out and gave way to Gibler.

Christian Foutch finished up of the mound for Arkansas.