OMAHA — No team came into the NCAA baseball tournament struggling more than Arkansas.
Right now, no team seems better.
With Andy Wilkins homering and driving in five runs, Arkansas started off the College World Series with a 10-6 victory over Cal State Fullerton on Saturday.
The Razorbacks reached a double-digit run total for the fourth time in six games. Nine of their runs scored with two outs.
No doubt, coach Dave Van Horn likes the way his team has responded to his challenge after the Hogs lost 10 of 13 games heading into the national tournament.
“The No. 1 goal was to win the national championship, and the only way to do that was to play in Omaha. That’s all they had left,” Van Horn said. “I asked them what people are going to remember this team by — the one that started great and faded or the one that finished strong?
“They took it to heart and have been lights out.”
No one has been better than Wilkins. The sophomore first baseman is batting .593 (16-for-27) with four homers, five other extra-base hits and 17 RBIs in six NCAA Tournament games.
“I’m trying to keep it going,” he said. “I got hot in the Norman Regional and tried to keep it going in the super regionals, and now we’re here. I’m doing what I can to help the ballclub.”
The Hogs (40-22) play Monday night against LSU.
“It was big for us to go out and show that we were going to be in the game, that we had a pretty good club and we could swing it,” Van Horn said. “Scoring early was huge for us and put pressure on them.”
Dallas Keuchel (8-3) allowed four runs on five hits to win his first decision since May 2. Mike Bolsinger pitched the last three innings for his second save.
Fullerton, in the CWS for the 16th time and going for its fifth national title, is one loss from an early exit.
“I don’t think I have to say much to this team,” Titans first baseman Jared Clark said. “We can’t lose another game.”
LSU 9, Virginia 5
Sean Ochinko’s three-run homer gave LSU the lead in the fifth inning, and Ryan Schimpf’s two-run blast in the eighth broke open the game for the Tigers.
LSU, ranked No. 1 in the major polls and the No. 3 national seed, extended its season-high winning streak to 11 games.
With LSU trailing 4-3, Micah Gibbs and Mikie Mahtook reached on singles leading off the bottom of the fifth. Ochinko then drove a 2-1 pitch from Matt Packer (3-5) into the left-field bleachers to put the Tigers up 6-4.
Franco Valdes’ opposite-field home run to left off Austin Ross made it 6-5 in the seventh. Ross (6-7) and three other pitchers then combined to hold the Cavaliers to two hits and no runs the rest of the way.
Schimpf’s 20th home run of the season, off Tyler Wilson, gave record-setting closer Matty Ott a four-run cushion when he went to the mound for the ninth. After he gave up a double to Valdes, Ott struck out Jarrett Parker to cap LSU’s first win in a CWS opener in four Omaha appearances.
