Hogs Try to Stave Off Elimination in Arkansas vs Santa Clara
The Razorbacks will play the first of what they hope are three straight games with their season on the line Sunday night. It starts with an Arkansas vs Santa Clara rematch for a spot in the Fayetteville Regional final.
Barely an hour removed from a 20-5 shellacking at the hands of TCU, Arkansas will have to put the loss behind it quickly for the 8 p.m. CT first pitch against the Broncos, which knocked out Arizona on Saturday. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
The winner of this game will have to beat TCU twice on Monday to advance to the super regional.
As always, Best of Arkansas Sports is at Baum-Walker Stadium and will provide live, inning-by-inning updates from Arkansas vs Santa Clara below…
Pregame Tidbits from Fayetteville Regional
Despite being the higher seed and having an identical record in the Fayetteville Regional, Arkansas will be the “away” team for this game. That is due to Arkansas being the home team twice and Santa Clara being the road team twice already.
Left-hander Brandon Gomez will start for Santa Clara. The junior has a 3.50 ERA with 51 strikeouts and only 10 walks in 54 innings this season. This will be his ninth start of the year. He’s also made eight relief appearances.
Arkansas has switched up its lineup once again, moving Caleb Cali to second in order to get Ben McLaughlin in the lineup at third base. Cali’s first 44 starts this season were all at third. Brady Slavens has moved all the way down to the 7 hole.
The crowd at Baum-Walker Stadium for the Arkansas vs Santa Clara elimination game is significantly smaller than the Razorbacks’ first two games, both of which drew 11,000-plus fans.
T-1st: Arkansas 2, Santa Clara 0
To start the game, Josenberger fouled off a couple of pitches before working a full-count leadoff walk. After the seven-pitch walk, Bohrofen followed with an RBI double to the right-center gap. Josenberger scored easily from first. Bohrofen tagged up to third on Wegner’s fly out to right and then scored on McLaughlin’s sacrifice fly to left. Diggs followed with a walk, but was stranded when Cali went down swinging. It was a 24-pitch inning by Gomez.
B-1st: Arkansas 2, Santa Clara 0
Berring worked the count full before drawing a leadoff walk. Then Dawson Brigman flied out to center and O’Hara flied out to left. With two outs, Berring swiped second. However, he was stranded there when Manzo took strike three. Tygart threw 17 pitches.
T-2nd: Arkansas 2, Santa Clara 0
Gomez made quick work of the Razorbacks in the second inning, getting Slavens and Bolton to ground out to second sandwiched around a strikeout by Rowland. It was a 10-pitch inning for Gomez, who is up to 34 through two.
B-2nd: Arkansas 2, Santa Clara 0
After a pop out to third by Coleman Brigman, Tygart walked Lance in a full count. He was stranded, though, as Williams lined out to center and Ferroggiaro grounded out to second. Tygart is up to 30 pitches through two innings.
T-3rd: Arkansas 3, Santa Clara 0
Josenberger went down looking to start the third inning. Bohrofen followed with a strikeout, as well, but it was swinging. With two outs, Jared Wegner crushed a solo home run to left-center to make it 3-0. McLaughlin also made really solid contact, but his line drive was caught in left for the final out. Gomez has thrown 49 pitches through three innings.
B-3rd: Arkansas 3, Santa Clara 0
Steck grounded out to third to start the home half of the inning. Berring followed with a line drive that just got over Bolton’s glove at short for Santa Clara’s first hit of the game. Tygart bounced back to strike out Dawson Brigman and get O’Hara to ground out to short. It was an 11-pitch inning, bringing his total to 41.
T-4th: Arkansas 4, Santa Clara 0
An error by the first baseman allowed Diggs to reach to start the bottom of the fourth. After Cali went down looking, Slavens grounded out to short, but it allowed Diggs to move to second. That set the stage for Rowland’s two-out RBI single. Bolton followed with some solid contact to left, but it was caught just in front of the warning track to end the inning. Gomez is up to 62 pitches through four innings.
B-4th: Arkansas 4, Santa Clara 0
Tygart struck out Manzo and Coleman Brigman to start the fourth. Then Lance hit a slow roller to the left side and McLaughlin came over and fielded it in front of Bolton. He fired to first for the out. Tygart is up to 55 pitches through four innings.
T-5th: Arkansas 4, Santa Clara 0
After a fly out to right by Josenberger, Bohrofen poked a singled into right for his second hit of the game. Wegner followed with a four-pitch walk. It’s the third walk of the game for Gomez, a season high. McLaughlin hit the ball hard, but it was a deep fly out to center – deep enough for Bohrofen to tag up to third. With runners on the corners and two outs, Diggs chased a pitch out of the zone to strike out. Gomez is at 81 pitches.
Starting Lineups – Arkansas vs Santa Clara
Santa Clara Baseball Arkansas Baseball 1. JonJon Berring – LF 1. Tavian Josenberger – CF 2. Dawson Brigman – 2B 2. Jace Bohrofen – RF 3. Michael O’Hara – RF 3. Jared Wegner – LF 4. Efrain Manzo – 1B 4. Ben McLaughlin – 3B 5. Coleman Brigman – CF 5. Kendall Diggs – DH 6. Eamonn Lance – DH 6. Caleb Cali – 2B 7. Malcolm Williams – SS 7. Brady Slavens – 1B 8. Thomas Ferroggiaro – 3B 8. Parker Rowland – C 9. Ben Steck – C 9. John Bolton – SS Pitching: Jr. LHP Brandon Gomez Pitching: So. RHP Brady Tygart
How to Watch the Fayetteville Regional
Friday, June 2
Game 1: Arkansas 13, Santa Clara 6
Game 2: TCU 12, Arizona 4
Saturday, June 3
Game 3: Santa Clara 9, Arizona 3 – Arizona eliminated
Sunday, June 4
Game 4 – TCU 20, Arkansas 5
Game 5 – Arkansas vs Santa Clara – 8 p.m. CT – elimination game
Monday, June 5 (If Necessary)
Game 6 – TCU vs. Game 5 Winner – TBD
Game 7 – If the Game 5 Winner Wins Game 6 – TBD
Composite College Baseball Top 25
Unlike football and basketball, which have just the AP and Coaches Polls all year (with football adding the CFP rankings late in the season), college baseball has six major polls. Collegiate Baseball used to be included, but it was dropped due to severe inconsistencies in its rankings. Perfect Game also didn’t update its poll this week, so only four polls are used in these rankings.
To get a better feel for how teams stack up, BoAS has combined those rankings into a single top 25 by using a points system in which a No. 1 ranking = 25 points, No. 2 = 24 points and all the way to No. 25 = 1 point. We will update this each week throughout the season…
Team Conference Change Points 1. Wake Forest ACC — 100 2. Florida SEC — 96 3. Vanderbilt SEC +4 90 4. Arkansas SEC — 87 5. Clemson ACC +1 86 t-6. LSU SEC -1 78.5 t-6. Stanford Pac-12 -3 78.5 8. Coastal Carolina Sun Belt — 70 9. Miami (Fla.) ACC — 69 10. Virginia ACC — 63 11. Campbell Big South +4 60 12. East Carolina AAC — 52 13. Oklahoma State Big 12 +4 48 14. Dallas Baptist C-USA — 43 15. UConn Big East -4 41 16. Southern Miss Sun Belt +8 38 17. Oregon State Pac-12 -1 33 18. Tennessee SEC -5 29 19. Alabama SEC +7 21 t-20. Maryland Big Ten +8 18 t-20. South Carolina SEC +2 18 22. West Virginia Big 12 -4 15 23. Indiana State MVC +4 13 t-24. Texas Big 12 -4 11 t-24. TCU Big 12 N/A 11 Receiving votes: Auburn (10), Kentucky (9), Duke (7), Oregon (2), Boston College (2), Texas A&M (1)
MOVED IN: Alabama (19), Maryland (t-20), Indiana State (23), TCU (t-24)
MOVED OUT: Auburn (19), Boston College (21), Duke (t-22), Kentucky (25)
Conference Breakdown
SEC: 7
ACC: 4
Big 12: 4
Pac-12: 2
Sun Belt: 2
AAC: 1
Big East: 1
Big South: 1
Big Ten: 1
C-USA: 1
MVC: 1
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More coverage of Arkansas baseball and the Fayetteville Regional from BoAS…
Source: Best of Arkansas Sports
