Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Just good enough — an accurate description of Arkansas’ run through the Waco Super Regional after a pair of nail biters, one-run victories over the No. 4 Baylor Bears.

The Razorbacks (44-20) earned the school’s seventh trip to the College World Series in dramatic fashion Monday after breaking a scoreless tie in the top of the 10^th, then striking out the final hitter with two runners on to seal the Hogs’ second 1-0 victory in postseason play

Arkansas is the third SEC team to make the eight-team College World Series field, joining Florida and South Carolina in Omaha.

Watching the Razorback dog pile celebration after the final out was a tough way for Baylor and Coach Steve Smith to go out. The Bears (49-17) had a phenomenal season in steamrolling the Big 12 Conference and seemed to have all the pieces to compete for a national championship. But as each inning went by and runner after runner was stranded, the pressure mounted in the Baylor dugout.

Baylor had numerous opportunities to bury the Razorbacks but the Hogs somehow found a way to make the big pitch or come up with a defensive gem to squash the rally.

Meanwhile Arkansas was completely shut down by an outstanding pitching performance from Bears starter Tyler Bremer. Bremer had all his pitches working and looked far better than the No. 3 starter that had to wait until the 27^th round to be taken in last week’s Major League Baseball draft. The Razorbacks did a poor job of adjusting to Bremer’s ability to work the outside half of the plate and only advanced a runner to second twice in nine innings against Bremer.

Smith tried to push some buttons late, which didn’t work out in the Bears’ favor. He pinch hit for slick fielding but light hitting shortstop Jake Miller with a runner on, opting for pitcher and part time hitter Josh Turley.

The left-handed hitting Turley had two hits in six at-bats all season. Smith explained his logic in the postgame press conference, stating that right-handers were only hitting .150 off Hogs' reliever Colby Suggs so he went with the percentages. Turley struck out on a called third strike.

With Miller out of the game, Smith inserted little used Steve DalPorto at shortstop. DalPorto had only played in 22 games while recording 30 assists. In comparison, Miller had converted 175 attempts.

The game winning hit by Arkansas catcher Jake Wise slipped through as DalPorto dived in the hole trying to keep the ball on the infield. Wise’s seeing eye single was a hit all the way, but with the ball trickling to the outfield, Hog freshman Brian Anderson was able to motor to home plate and score the only run.

Based on Miller’s performance through the weekend (outside of the error on the potential double play ground ball that could have ended the Hogs’ season Sunday), odds are he knocks down Wise’s grounder and holds Anderson at third. Who knows what happens after that? They might still be playing.

Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn and his staff know they pulled off a slight miracle getting this team to Omaha. One has to wonder if any team has made it to Omaha hitting .207 with only 10 extra base hits in NCAA play.