Campbell, Cronin capture more honors
FAYETTEVILLE – With the Razorbacks already in Omaha and Arkansas’ first game of the 2019 College World Series just two days away, two more sets of All-america teams were released this week as Baseball America and the National College Baseball Writers’ Association (NCBWA) honored righthanders Isaiah Campbell and Matt Cronin as Allamericans.
It’s the second and third time this year that Campbell and Cronin have been named All-americans by various college baseball publications.
Both Campbell and Cronin were named to the second team by Baseball America one week after Campbell earned secondteam honors and Cronin third-team honors from Collegiate Baseball. Campbell also earned second-team honors from the NCBWA and Cronin was named to the third team by the same publication. Campbell and Cronin are the 11th and 12th nonfreshman pitchers to be named All-americans in school history and 16th and 17th overall.
Following the footsteps of Blaine Knight into his redshirt junior year, Campbell has given Arkansas ace-like numbers all year as the Friday night starter. With a team-leading 2.26 ERA, Campbell has garnered a 12-1 record and struck out 115 batters over 111.1 innings, which are all career-bests heading into the CWS.
Campbell is coming off arguably his best outing as a Razorback, working a career-long 8.1 innings in the NCAA Super Regional last week against Ole
Miss, striking out seven. Campbell has a 1.65 ERA in 16.1 innings of the NCAA Tournament this year and has pitched eight or more innings in each of his two starts.
Campbell, an Olathe, Kansas, native, was named a Golden Spikes Semifinalist last month, the first since Andrew Benintendi in 2015, and is just two wins away from tying the single-season school record of 14 wins set by Blaine Knight a year ago. Campbell was drafted No. 76 overall to the Seattle Mariners in the 2019 MLB Draft, joining teammate Dominic Fletcher, who was taken one pick prior, as the first Razorbacks to be taken on the first day of the draft since Benintendi went seventh overall to Boston in 2015.
Cronin has followed up his record-breaking campaign from a year ago and has continued to show why he is considered one of the best closers in the country. With 12 saves in 24 appearances, Cronin ranks in a tie for second in the SEC and 22nd in the nation. His 27 career saves rank second on
the Arkansas all-time chart, just seven behind career leader and former threetime All-american Philip Stidham (33 – 1989-91).
Cronin hasn’t given up a run in seven straight appearances (8.0 innings) dating back to May 3 and two of those outings were more than one inning, resulting in two of his last three saves. Cronin was also an ALL-SEC pick for the first time in his career as he was one of nine Razorback selected and was drafted in the fourth round of the 2019 MLB Draft to the Washington Nationals.
Arkansas (46-18) will play its first game of the 2019 College World Series on Saturday against Florida State (41-27) with first pitch from TD Ameritrade Park at 6 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN.