OMAHA, Neb.—Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn didn’t let the blowout loss to LSU that eliminated the Razorbacks from the College World Series spoil the whole season.
“I’m proud of the team,” Van Horn said Friday after a 14-5 loss ended Arkansas’ season at 41-24. “I told them the end of the season is always tough. I told them I wasn’t going to get emotional. I was too proud of them.”
A month ago, Arkansas was in the middle of a stretch of losing 10 of 13 games, including eight in a row in Southeastern Conference play. Few Razorback fans had the College World Series on their minds.
Yet on Friday, the Hogs were playing in the Bracket 1 final.
Their fate was sealed early as LSU bolted to a 4-0 lead after three innings. Stephen Richards, the Hogs’ closer who hadn’t started a game since 2007, was the first of a CWS record-tying eight pitchers used by Van Horn.
None had much success against the Tigers, who collected 16 hits, including four home runs.
LSU (54-16) struck for single runs in the fifth and sixth before blowing things open with a five-run seventh and an 11-0 lead.
“LSU was just too strong today,” said Van Horn, who completed his seventh year at Arkansas. “We didn’t have enough to hold them down.”
There were doubters when the Razorbacks were struggling down the stretch of the regular season, but Van Horn and others still had Omaha in their sights.
“There were a lot of people who thought we’d be here,” Van Horn said, “including everybody on this team. Once the (regular) season ended, we turned it around.”
The Hogs earned an at-large bid for regionals, winning on the road in Norman, Okla., including two straight wins over the Sooners. Then they swept Florida State in super regionals, again on the road, to enter the CWS on a hot streak.
“We were playing pretty bad (earlier), and it was frustrating,” said left fielder Chase Leavitt, whose three-run homer in the ninth erased a bit of the sting. “We made a little run and made some good memories.”
