OMAHA — LSU defeated Arkansas 4-1 on Saturday night in the first round of the College World Series in Omaha.
It was deemed a pitching matchup of Arkansas' Zach Root against LSU's Kade Anderson. Instead it was Anderson who dominated Arkansas. Root only lasted 1.2 innings allowing two hits, three runs, walking two, striking out three and hitting a batter. Dave Van Horn talked about pulling Root that quickly.
"To me, it was a hard decision," Van Horn said. "I had to make a decision. Anderson looked really good. Seems like we weren't getting good swings off him. We were already down three runs. They had, I think, (Ethan) Frey coming up, who's hitting over .400 against left-handers. And I just didn't feel like we could let them score anymore. I had a great pitcher in the bullpen who was hot. We got him up because we saw what we saw -- two walks, a hit-by pitch, a hit or two -- and the game was about to get out of hand.
"Yeah, it's early, but the wind's blowing in. It's going to be tough to hit it over anybody's head. Scoring a lot of runs against Anderson to me wasn't something that was going to happen. I hated to do it, but I just felt like it was the right decision. And I'll stand by it. It was the right decision."
After pitching a perfect first inning, Root struck out Steven Milam to start the top of the second. But then he walked the next two LSU hitters, gave up two singles and hit a batter. He did get Josh Pearson to ground into a fielder's choice, but three runs had scored. Van Horn went to the bullpen to get Gabe Gaeckle. He retired Frey to get out of the jam. Van Horn noted the walks hurt the Hogs.
"It's tough, unless you get out of it," Van Horn said. "And he didn't. Gave up a hit after that. Maybe one or two runs, but that third run, that was pretty tough. You're thinking he'd already thrown 20-some pitches that inning, 25, upper 20s, I'm not sure what.
"Yeah, just the conditions and who we're facing and who's on the mound, it made those two walks look big, and they were."
On the other hand, Gaeckle was outstanding. He pitched six innings. Gaeckle allowed three hits, one run, only walked a hitter and fanned 10. Van Horn said it felt reassuring to see Gaeckle pitch like that.
"It is," Van Horn said. "He threw 90 pitches. I think he struck out 10 guys. I'm not sure exactly. Our team, we struck out 16. I thought the pitchers did a good job just moving it around a little bit. Gibler made the mistake 0-2, It was supposed to be in the dirt and probably gets a punch-out. And Gaeckle doesn't give up any runs, because that was his run out there.
"He pitched great. He did everything we were hoping he would do, held down a pretty good lineup and gave us a chance to chip away and get back in, but their staff didn't let us."
Cole Gibler and Christian Foutch came in from the bullpen to pitch 1.1 innings. On the other hand, Anderson worked seven innings and was outstanding. He allowed three hits, one run, two walks and struck out seven.
"I thought as far as -- I thought our pitching was incredible," Van Horn said. "Obviously Anderson and (Chase) Shores did a tremendous job. And they finished it up with (Cason) Evans in the ninth.
"We had a couple of chances to score some runs and we didn't. Reese (Robinett) hit a home run and got us kind of feeling pretty good, down 3-1. We just needed to score the next inning, but we didn't.
"Really it boiled down to Anderson. He didn't give us anything. He's 11-1 because he's really good. That's all I've got."
Robinett, Arkansas' first baseman, hit a solo home run to start the bottom of the sixth. LSU added the final run of the game in the top of the eighth when Milam hit a one-out double. He scored on a single by Derek Curiel.
LSU Coach Jay Johnson praised his staff that combined to allow just four hits to a potent Arkansas lineup.
"Great win for our team," Van Horn said. "Outstanding performance against a great team in Arkansas. Start with Kade, outstanding performance. What we've been accustomed to on the opening night of every weekend this year. I thought he got stronger as the game went along. I thought he executed pitches at a really high level, which you have to do against that offense.
"I thought the bullpen was great -- Chase coming in with a man on base, executing, getting two strikeouts right there. Then we got the fly ball or line drive, I should say. And then Casan, great poise in the ninth especially after giving up the single to (Charles) Davalan."
Arkansas (48-14) will now face Murray State on Monday at 1 p.m. on ESPN in an elimination game. Murray State fell to UCLA 6-4 on Saturday. Friday's scores had Oregon State downing Louisville 4-3 and Coastal Carolina beating Arizona 7-4.
