Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Arkansas buries touted Stanford
Cardinal dealt most lopsided Series setback
Connor Noland allowed one run in 7⅔ innings, Chris Lanzilli hit a tiebreaking three-run homer, and Arkansas beat No. 2 national seed Stanford 17-2 on Saturday in the most lopsided College World Series game in 34 years.
The Razorbacks (44-19) knocked out Pac-12 pitcher of the year Alex Williams in the fifth inning and logged their biggest margin of victory in 36 CWS games. It was the most decisive loss for the Cardinal (47-17) in their 73 CWS games.
Arkansas will play Monday against Southeastern Conference West rival Mississippi (38-22). Stanford will face No. 14 Auburn (42-21) in an elimination game.
The Razorbacks scored 11 runs in the last three innings and totaled a season-high 21 hits, including Cayden Wallace’s 30th career homer in the ninth.
Noland (8-5) surrendered a homer to Cardinal leadoff man Brock Jones on his third pitch. But Stanford didn’t score again until Carter Graham greeted reliever Kole Ramage with a hit in the eighth.
Noland threw only 79 pitches on a hot, humid afternoon when the feels-like temperature reached 106 degrees. He induced 11 groundball outs, and his lone strikeout came in the sixth inning. Other than Jones’ homer, all the Cardinal mustered against him were five singles and a walk.
Williams (8-4) gave up a triple to Braydon Webb on the first pitch, hit a batter and issued a walk but got out of the inning down only 1-0.
Williams settled down the next three innings and then gave up back-to-back singles in the fifth before Lanzilli hammered a changeup a dozen rows into the left-center seats to make it 4-1.
■ Mississippi 5, No. 14 Auburn 1: Dylan DeLucia allowed one run on four hits without a walk while striking out 10 in 7⅔ innings for the Rebels, who scored four runs with two outs.
DeLucia (7-2) ran his NCAA Tournament strikeout total to 31 in 19⅓ innings while leading a staff that has a 1.83 ERA in the postseason, averaging 13.7 strikeouts per nine innings.
After being the last at-large team picked for the NCAA Tournament, Ole Miss won three straight in regional play and shut out Southern Mississippi twice in the super regionals.
Kemp Alderman had a tworun single in the first inning off Joseph Gonzalez (7-4). Kevin Graham homered in the third for the Rebels, and T.J. McCants added an RBI single in the sixth.
DeLucia retired 14 in a row before Brody Moore singled through the right side with two outs in the fifth for the Tigers’ first hit. Auburn came in averaging almost 11 runs per game in the postseason.