Trio of Razorbacks garner accolades
FAYETTEVILLE Arkansas Razorbacks junior right-handed pitcher Blaine Knight was named first-team Wednesday to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association All-America team.
Knight, 12-0 with a 2.84 earned run average run 16 starts, including victories over Oral Roberts at the Fayetteville Regional and South Carolina at the super regional advancing Arkansas to the College World Series in Omaha, is expected to start the Razorbacks’ first round CWS game against the Texas Longhorns at 2 p.m. Sunday at Ameritrade Stadium.
Knight, a recent thirdround draft choice of the Baltimore Orioles, becomes the Razorbacks’ 23rd baseball All-American, starting with eventual major league pitcher Tim Lollar as a designated hitter in 1978 through Andrew Benintendi, the 2015 Golden Spikes winner and current Boston Red Sox outfielder.
Razorbacks freshman third baseman Casey Martin and freshman left fielder Heston Kjerstad both were named Wednesday to the NCBWA’s Freshman All-American team.
As the Longhorns, beaten 13-4 and 7-5 by Arkansas back on March 13-14 at Baum Stadium, prepare their Arkansas scouting reports, don’t be surprised if Texas coach David Pierce spends the most time game-planning against a Razorback not included among the top three hitters, who are Martin (a team-leading .344 batting average, 13 home runs, 46 RBIs), senior second baseman Carson Shaddy (.341, 13 home runs, 52 RBIs), and Kjerstad (.340, 14 home runs, 54 RBIs).
Junior switch-hitting right fielder Eric Cole hits just a little below them at .329, but above them in the order as the leadoff hitter with pop, having hit 14 home runs with 50 RBIs.
“As Cole goes, we go,” describes this Arkansas attack for its last two games, even taking none of the aforementioned three leading hitters plus the big at times postseason bats swung by designated hitter Luke Bonfield, first baseman Jared Gates, shortstop Jax Biggers and center fielder Dominic Fletcher.
Arkansas never led off with a man reaching base in Sunday afternoon’s 8-5 Game 2 super regional loss to South Carolina after beating the Gamecocks 9-3 Saturday night.
Batting five times and
scoring five runs, Cole set the table for Monday night’s 14-4 Game 3 gashing of the Gamecocks, which sent the Razorbacks to Omaha.
He walked leading off the five-run first, singled leading off a two-run second, and doubled leading off to score Arkansas’ run in the fourth. He worked a bases-loaded RBI walk with nobody out in the five-run fifth and clouted a solo home run with one out in the seventh.
“Eric Cole was locked in tonight and he got us rolling,” Van Horn said.
The Longhorns have already experienced Cole on a roll rolling them over. A Texas native and alum of Southlake Carroll High, Cole turned on Texas pitching during their series in March.
Then batting in the No. 2 spot, Cole went 3-for5 with two doubles and three RBIs, triggering the 13-4 lashing of the Longhorns.
He only went 1-for-5 in the next day’s rematch but off that one, a seventh-inning double, Cole scored on Jordan McFarland’s double to helped put the game away.