Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Razorbacks advance
Hogs take a College World Series spot with win over Gators
OMAHA, Neb. — The Arkansas Razorbacks clinched a spot in the College World Series championship series Friday, eliminating defending national champion and No. 1 seed Florida 5-2.
With the partisan Arkansas crowd cheering, “Go Hogs Go,” closer Matt Cronin struck out Blake Reese to finish off the victory, touching off a brief celebration for the Razorbacks.
Casey Martin led the offense for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville with a 4-for-5 performance, and the freshman scored the Hogs’ first three runs of the game to back a gem from sophomore Isaiah Campbell. Arkansas racked up 11 hits, including Dominic Fletcher’s second home run in two games, before a crowd of 25,016 at TD Ameritrade Park, the highest attendance of the series.
The Razorbacks (47-19) advanced to the best 2-of-3 championship series starting Monday night against the winner of tonight’s Bracket 1 final between Mississippi State and Oregon State. The Razorbacks are in the finals for the first time since 1979 and are in search of their first national championship.
Campbell (5-6) who outpitched Florida ace Brady Singer, carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning and
turned in one of the strongest performances of his career by allowing 2 runs on 2 hits through 51/3 innings.
Cronin pitched the final two innings for his school-record tying 13th save, helped by Eric Cole’s leaping catch over the railing deep in right field in foul territory to lead off the bottom of the ninth.
Arkansas outhit the Gators 11-3 and now has double figure hits during its 3-0 run in Omaha.
Fletcher went 2 for 5 with 2 RBI and is now 8 of 13 in Omaha.
Florida (49-21) had won seven consecutive elimination games in the NCAA Tournament dating back to last year.
The Razorbacks victory assured the national No. 1 seed would not win the series for the 19th consecutive year. Miami in 1999 is the only No. 1 seed to win the CWS since
the super regional format and seeding process was added in 1999.
The Gators, playing in the CWS semifinals for the third time in the past four years, fell to 2-3 against Arkansas in 2018.
The Razorbacks chased Singer (12-3) after five innings, with the No. 18 pick by the Royals allowing 4 runs on 7 hits and 1 walk and leaving with an 11.93 career ERA against the Hogs. Singer fell to 0-3 against the Razorbacks in his career.
Arkansas worked Singer for 29 pitches in the first inning, highlighted by Luke Bonfield’s 10-pitch at-bat that resulted in an RBI single.
Martin slashed a oneout single into left field and moved up on Heston Kjerstad’s fly ball down the rightfield line. Bonfield fouled off five pitches before slapping a single into right-center field to score Martin.
The Razorbacks increased their lead to 2-0 in the second with Martin again serving as the spark plug. The freshman
led off with a single to left field and advanced a base when the second baseman Reese could not make a back-hand stop on Kjerstad’s ground ball for an error.
After Bonfield’s infield pop-up, Fletcher went firstpitch hunting and belted a single over first baseman JJ Schwarz’s head to send Martin racing home.
Martin led off the fifth with a double into the left-field corner to spark another Hogs’ rally. Kjerstad’s grounder got Martin to third, then Bonfield drove him in with a ground ball to third base.
Two pitches later Fletcher barreled up a Singer pitch and sent it over the right-field wall for his second home run in two games and his 10th of the season for a 4-0 lead.
Florida cut its deficit in half in the bottom of the inning after Austin Langworthy broke up Campbell’s no hitter with a two-out single to left field. Campbell hit Reese with the next pitch, then Brady Smith stroke a twostrike
pitch into right field to make it 4-1. Campbell’s wild pitch allowed Reese to score before he struck out Nick Horvath to escape the inning.
The Razorbacks broke through for another run in the sixth off Florida reliever Tommy Mace. Jared Gates hit a single off third baseman Jonathan India to open the frame, then Reese threw wide of first on Jax Biggers’ chopper, allowing the runners to reach second and third.
Mace struck out Eric Cole to get on the brink of wriggling out of damage, but Martin out-ran a dribbler to second base that allowed Gates to score from third.
Arkansas reliever Jake Reindl retired SEC Player of the Year India and clean-up hitter Will Dalton to finish the sixth, but he got in trouble in the seventh with oneout walks to Langworthy and Reese.
After a visit from pitching coach Wes Johnson, Reindl struck out Smith and got Horvath to hit into a force play.