[00:00:24] Speaker A: Arkansas is in the championship of the Fayetteville regional with a 12 to 1 win over Creighton last night. Real impressive game. We'll discuss it on today's podcast. But first, a word from Kendall King.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design.
We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kindle, King, Soapbox and Shopcart. Together, these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas.
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[00:01:13] Speaker A: You know my thought on Arkansas year and Joe Healy from D1 Baseball has made a similar thought. So I don't want this to sound like I'm stealing what he has said, but when Arkansas plays its best this year, it's better than the best of maybe any other team in the country. I think you'd probably put LSU in that category.
That may be it. Those two teams, and I thought last night was an, it was just a, an example of when Arkansas plays its best, how dominant they can look. They get six shutout innings from Zach Root, they hit five home runs, they scored 12 runs and it wasn't a perfect offensive game for him from any, you know, by any stretch. They left some runners out there the first three or four innings and you know, it was game. Even though they never trailed, it felt like, hey, you know, Creighton was a swing away from maybe getting back into this thing. They played good defense and I've said this all year, when you get this team on its home field, they just look like an unstoppable team a lot of times.
And that's what I thought was the case last night. They win their 34th game at home. If they win tonight, they'll play a regional championship against either Creighton or North Dakota State tonight at 8 o' clock.
Those teams play at 2. If Arkansas wins tonight, it would be their 35th win at home and that would set the single season school record. And if they did that, they'd have a super regional coming here next week with the chance to win for more. Anthony Christensen's here in studio with me. You were there last night. What were your thoughts on the game?
[00:02:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I thought it was, I thought it was good. You know, I thought like you said, you know, there was kind of early on you kind of felt like maybe Creighton could, you know, get one swing in and it would be back at it. Just like kind of saw when Creighton beat Kansas the other night. So I thought the, the offensive execution was good for, for the most part. Obviously you said like, like there were some, some runners left on base and everything. But I mean they, I thought their plate approach was good. They got. I think it was 12 walks, right, 12 walks, something like that. So I mean they were seeing the ball well. And obviously I think both Veloi and, and Ryder Helfink both had two home runs as well. So I thought the offense was good. And then you like you touched on I mean Zach Root throwing six shutout innings. I thought, you know, he looked, he looked fantastic all night. And I was interested to see how he was going to come out in, in this regional just because last season when he was at East Carolina the regional didn't exactly go to plan for, for them kind of, you know, falling out there.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: But yeah, you look at his two starts though at East Carolina and I think a lot of people would look at his last outing at East Carolina. He did that on like two or three days rest.
[00:03:46] Speaker C: Yes Y.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: And out of the bullpen. His, his two starts at East Carolina, the one that he had last year and the one that he had the year before that. He's been really good in the postseason. He's a good post season pitcher. So I wasn't totally surprised by his outing last night. I'll tell you. I thought a lot of people will look at Vijivo Aloy and the home run that he had in the fifth inning. It's kind of played that broke the game open.
Well, that one didn't go so far. It was the one a little bit further. But they thought, you know, it's that swing that took it from a four to nothing game to a seven to nothing game. It did break the game open and it felt team played really loose after that. But I thought the sequence of the game was the bottom of the fourth inning because Arkansas played as the designated visiting team last night. Root gets a strikeout strikeout to start the inning. Then he walks a guy in five pitches, gets behind 3, 0, ends up walking him. Then he gives up a single when he gets into a hitters count. A two one single by Teddy Deters. And so there's two on with two out in the fourth inning. And this is the point in the game where it has kind of fallen apart on him in some, in. In some of his outings this year. I think it happened against Florida. I know what happened against Tennessee. And he comes back and he strikes out McClain for the final out of that inning. And it was like, that was the moment to me where it's like, okay, they've got this because it didn't unravel on him in that point. And he made a big, big pitch at a big point in the game where Creighton was a swing away from making it really interesting.
[00:05:16] Speaker C: Yeah, especially against a guy like McLean when the other night he, he sent a ball into orbit against Kansas in a 40, 455 foot home run in that, in that game. So it was a, it was an interesting matchup to see, you know, Zach Ruko up against him. And I felt like that was also a big, a big point in the game just because of obviously it being two runners on, two outs and you know, who was that, who was at the plate? I know he doesn't have the best batting average on Creighton's team by any means, but you know, we, we all saw what he could do when he's at the plate when, when he, you know, played as well played as well as he did against Kansas. So I, yeah, no, that was, there was a huge moment and yeah, I mean, yeah, you know, I.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: The off speed stuff for, for Zach was as good as I think I've seen it this year. He was really landing that breaking pitch and, and doing a good job of mixing up his pitches. And the other thing that we saw from him last night was a greater velocity on his fastball, which obviously that adds some contrast between those pitches. And you know, we saw, I think he hit 98 on the gun one time last night. I saw him, yeah, we saw him in the 96, 97 range.
[00:06:23] Speaker C: Looked over at you and you were like, I don't know that he's done.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: That well, I mean, we have. It's just, you know, it's. We know that he's got that bullet in there maybe a time or two, but that's not who he is. He's not a high 90s velocity guy. And so, you know, for him to throw that, sometimes I think he throws it just to show him like, hey, I do have this and it just kind of helps him maybe in the middle part of the game. But it also, like I said, it adds some contrast between that fastball and then he comes back with the breaking pitch. And we saw a number of times last night where he handcuffed hitters and two strike counts with that breaking pitch. And I thought it was as good as he's looked this year. It's kind of interesting. He starts the month of May on the mound at Baum against Texas, probably the best outing he's had in his career. Eight scoreless and 11 Ks. And then last night against Creighton, last night of the month of May ends up with another huge, you know, shutout performance. Six innings and seven strikeouts, one walk.
This is the type of pitcher, not only that, Arkansas thought they were going to get with Zach Root. We've seen it a number of times in some big games. I mentioned it. Vanderbilt, he was really good. Texas, he was good. Lsu, he was good. There have been some games where he's not been so good. This is what they need, though, to make a run in the postseason. They need their ace to pitch like an ace.
[00:07:44] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. And he mentioned it last night. I think that the approach was to kind of, I guess maybe look more towards a fastball like he had said.
If I remember correctly, everything's kind of fuzzy because I'm. I'm losing my mind a little bit. But you know, he had said sleep.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Is minimal this time of year.
[00:08:03] Speaker C: Absolutely. What is it?
[00:08:04] Speaker A: We sleep in July.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: We sleep in July.
Yeah. No, and, and, yeah, I woke up at like 6, 6:30 this morning. My dog was like, it's time to go walk. And I was like, oh, boy.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: He wouldn't have to watch the late inning, the late game at Mom. It'll be even later tonight, by the way.
[00:08:21] Speaker C: I know, I'm aware.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: I don't. I don't think there's going to be a time change tonight like there was for, for yesterday's game.
[00:08:28] Speaker C: Yeah, like you like to get back to Zach Root. You know, you said that. You know, I think some of the approach was to lean on, lean on the fastball a little bit because maybe, you know, Creighton doesn't see it as much in the Big east, at least to that, to that speed. So. And obviously it worked.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: So Arkansas, they get, you know, I mean, some big games offensively from the guys who. They want to have big games on offense, you know, I mean, Vivo Loy, couple of home runs last night, five RBI in the game for him. He also walked twice. It was a great outing for him. Cam Kozel stayed hot. Had a couple of extra base hits. Home run in the second inning to give Arkansas the lead. Also had an RBI double. You know, this is a big game for him. He grew up in Omaha. I mean, Creighton, he didn't grow up very far from this campus.
His dad's a groundskeeper at Charles Schwab Field. That's where Creighton Plays their home games. And so, you know, it was a big deal for him to play against the Blue Jays. And then Reiner Helfrich, he just continues to hit. I mean, you look over his last maybe 10 to 15 games, there's a reason why he's moved up from seventh to sixth to fifth to clean up. Now in the order, he goes three for four last night. Couple of home runs, three RBI for the Razorbacks. You get those guys rolling. Two walks again for Ryder Helfrich. And I think the walks are a good snapshot of, you know, sometimes it's what the pitchers are doing. You know, they're. But the hitter has to be patient enough to take that walk. And when you see your guys, you know, like two walks for Vaheva, two walks for Helfrich, three walks last night, or two walks for Charles Davlin, three walks for Reese Robinette. I mean, these are some of your big guys in the lineup who are being patient. And I just think that sets a real tone up and down the order.
[00:10:11] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, that gives you the opportunity for those, those big time hits that we saw quite a few of last night. And I think, you know, Ed Service, you had mentioned it, if you're going to give up that many walks against a team with Arkansas's lineup, I mean, you're not going to win a lot of games.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: No.
[00:10:28] Speaker C: So, yeah, it was big. I thought the plate approach was really good. I thought they were, like you said, patient. I thought they saw the ball pretty well and, you know, took advantage of the opportunities when they came. And that's, that's kind of what you got to do this time of year, especially, you know, when you're playing against, you're playing in that one oh game. Right. So you don't want to go into the, the, the elimination game that is going to happen here in a few hours. So, yeah, no, I thought the plate approach was, was really good. Patient. And yeah, they saw the ball really well and took. Took advantage of their opportunities.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Dave Van Horn spoke with reporters last night after the game. This is what he had to say about the race. Backs win.
[00:11:08] Speaker C: Go. And then questions for coach? Coach, anyone you want?
[00:11:11] Speaker D: Okay, just thought, you know, we played a complete game. Zach pitched great, we played good defense and obviously got some timely hits, hit some home runs. They put us on base a few times. They walked probably 10, 12 times.
And you know, some of them were in the middle of the game when we, you know, had things under control a little bit. But really it was because, you know, we pitched extremely well, threw a lot of strikes and, you know, made them earn everything they got. You know, Creighton hit a couple balls hard at us, but for the most part I thought Zach just did a tremendous job of kind of setting the tone. And then offensively, you know, we got some big hits, especially with two outs that created a little bit of separation and yeah, it was a good ball game for us.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Dave Van Horn going for his 13th regional title tonight. When the Razorbacks play whoever they're going to play at 8 o' clock. If Arkansas doesn't win tonight, they'll still have a chance to win the regional tomorrow. But obviously, you know, it's advantageous to a team to go ahead and finish up that regional because you're really in the driver's seat tonight. When you're playing your third game and your opponent's playing their fourth game in three days, you give your opponent an extra day to rest and it's still, you know, the team that's started two and oh usually wins the regional. But you get into that one game, anything can happen type deal. So Arkansas certainly wants to finish off this one tonight. Ed Service, who is Creighton's longtime coach, he's going to be retiring at the end of the year.
This is what he had to say last night. He said, zach Root set the tone for the Razorbanks.
[00:12:48] Speaker E: You know, that pitcher set the tone tonight. You know, I think that when you have a pitcher that is dominant as he was, that relaxes your hitters. You know, the hitters know they don't have to do as much.
And then, you know, I said it last night too. Offense is such a momentum part of this game.
And once they got the lead, you know, their swings were different, they drove the ball better.
And, you know, I'm not totally surprised. You know, I knew they were a physical team. I knew they had some power. Obviously the numbers showcase that, so.
But we walked 12 hitters tonight and there's no way you can beat a team like this walking 12 hitters.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: And it's uncharacteristic for Creighton. I mean, they come into this game as one of the, you know, more well thought of pitching staffs in the country and I haven't looked this up, but I would suspect that 12 runs, 12 walks, that probably has not happened to them this year.
[00:13:44] Speaker C: Yeah, I would imagine not. And you know, it's kind of one of the conversation points that was kind of coming into the regional, especially for those Friday games, was looking at Creighton being a really good defensive team and going up against Kansas, which was more of an offensive minded team and seeing how those kind of different ideologies would clash and Creighton obviously came out on top and I was interested to see how that was going to look coming up, you know, against Arkansas, which obviously Arkansas can do it. Both do do it both ways. So yeah, it was, it was.
I was a little surprised that the pitching was as, not as, not as good as you would expect from a Creighton team. I don't want to say bad because I thought there were some, some decent dish moments and I think Ed Service said the same thing. But I don't think you can say it was good when you give up 12 runs but 14 free passes and.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: All 12 walks, two hit batters. Yep. Just not a good.
[00:14:45] Speaker C: That's not great for them. That's not great. No, you don't.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: That's not the type of game you want to have at this time of.
[00:14:50] Speaker C: Year or any time of year really, but especially now.
But very, very. Yeah, uncharacteristic is I think the best way to describe it.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Well, I'll tell you can get the latest breaking news on all Razorback sports@whole hogsports.com Most in depth source for all Razorback sports analysis, latest in recruiting, unique stories on all your favorite teams. Subscribe
[email protected] when we come back, we'll talk about how this sets up for Arkansas tonight from a pitching perspective. We'll also take a look around the SEC and more. But first, another word from Kendall King.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: At Kendall King, we're proud of over four decades of design.
We're continuing the legacy of great creative design by combining our brands of Kendall King, Soapbox and shopcart.
Together these brands represent a new focus in marketing design with individual attention to specific areas. Through our design expertise supported by a team of talented professionals, we showcase our best. We are Kendall King. We are Soapbox. We are Shopcart. We are designed.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: So Arkansas tonight going to play North Dakota State or Creighton mentioned earlier they'll play at 2 this afternoon. North Dakota State stayed alive by beating Kansas yesterday four to three at Baum in an elimination game. Second year in a row that the two seed in Fayetteville has gone. Oh and two it was Louisiana Tech last year. The three seed K State obviously won the regional. So you got the potential for a number one versus number three regional championship. You got the potential for a one versus four regional championship with North Dakota State. Kind of interesting. The four seed seems to win a lot in Arkansas's regional, you go back to 2014 in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the four seed that is in Arkansas's regional, whether it be in Fayetteville or Charlottesville or Stillwater, the Four has won at least one game in nine of those 10 regionals.
The Four doesn't win a whole lot.
[00:16:50] Speaker C: Shout out to the little guy.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Yeah, but you know, this has been a good year for the four. I mean, you had on Friday, you had four number one teams lose to four number fours.
Just.
I mean, I think what we're seeing this weekend is what we kind of thought we'd see, that it's been a really unpredictable season and here unpredictability kind of reigns supreme so far. I mean, look at all the number one teams that either have lost or now have to win three games in two days to stay alive. I mean, it's.
[00:17:23] Speaker C: Some are already out.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: You got it, you got a potential here for maybe half the, half the national seeds not to be standing when the super regionals roll around.
[00:17:32] Speaker C: Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's been, it's been fun to watch. You know, I come from a mid major background, so I'm always, I'm always kind of excited when, when teams like that can get those opportunities.
So it's been fun to watch, it's been unpredictable and yeah, it's been, it's been interesting if nothing else. I mean, Cal Poly knocked out Oregon last night, if I'm not mistaken. And you know, Murray State booked its, its spot in the championship round in the, in the Oxford Regional. So shout out the Missouri Valley.
But you know, it's been, it's been fun to, it's been fun to watch. Obviously here.
North Dakota State has stayed alive and in, down in Baton Rouge, Little Rock is still alive having beaten Rhode island last night.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: So 22 to 10.
[00:18:19] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: 22 runs. Yeah, I think it was the most runs that have, it's the most runs that have ever been scored in a regional game at lsu. And think about how many regional games have been played at lsu.
[00:18:29] Speaker C: That's a lot of games.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: Yeah, that's kind of an offensive ballpark.
[00:18:31] Speaker C: It's a lot of games, a lot of runs. So shout out to the Little Rock Trojans and the Rhode Island Rams too. They scored 11 runs, but I guess the pitching didn't do its job.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: I guess they've gone home.
Looking around the sec, obviously the series that everybody is most interested in or the regional is Tennessee's because the winner over in Knoxville is going to come here to Fayetteville. Tennessee's in the driver's seat after a 10 to 6 win over Cincinnati yesterday. Cincy and Wake will play in an elimination game this afternoon. And then whoever wins that would have to beat the Vols two times, while Tennessee would only have to win once. So it's setting up as a potential Arkansas, Tennessee super regional. But you don't, you know, you don't. Don't count your chickens before they hatch, so to speak. Looking around the rest of the sec, the big two big out or the two big outcomes last night were Vanderbilt losing to Louisville three to two in Nashville. That one didn't surprise me so much. I mean, you know, Louisville under Dan McDonald, they've been really good for a lot of years.
And Vanderbilt, what we've seen with them now, you know, they, they're getting no hit by Wright State through six innings.
[00:19:39] Speaker C: They've been struggling at the plate so far in this tournament.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that's kind of been the concern with them all year, has been the power and just the offensive numbers in general.
And now here they are where they've got to win. I think they've got the pitching to do it. The question is that they have the offense to do it because you kind of have to slug your way back in when you get into the losers bracket.
So they're, they're down in the hole one and one in Nashville. The number one overall national seed and the number two national seed, the Texas Longhorns. This doesn't surprise any of us.
They lost to Texas San Antonio last night in Austin, 9 to 7.
[00:20:13] Speaker C: And so now after having a 61 lead, if I'm not mistaken.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Yeah, they were up big. I know that.
[00:20:19] Speaker C: Roadrunners raced past them.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: So now Texas is in a situation where they've got to win three games in two days. And again, Texas has got its offensive limitations, so we'll see. I think both of those teams have the pitching to do it. I question whether or not they have the offense to do it.
[00:20:36] Speaker C: Yeah, no, for sure. And like you said, we, we, we saw that here.
Not to laugh at the Texas misfortune, I just, I don't know, I always laugh.
[00:20:47] Speaker A: But you got to be able to score this time of year.
[00:20:49] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: That's, that's kind of been the, that, that's been the, the linchpin, I guess, for the teams that have won the national championship is that you got to be able to score.
You know, there, there aren't a whole lot of teams that can just pitch their way through this thing.
[00:21:04] Speaker C: Yeah, no, it's.
It's certainly a concern if you're those teams. Obviously, the good pitching helps, which I think we've maybe seen that a little bit with North Dakota State, especially yesterday, getting past Kansas.
But. But, yeah, you need, you need the offense to go with it.
[00:21:20] Speaker A: The lineups are too old. I mean, that's, that's what we're seeing in the last five years or so is that the lineups have gotten a lot older, the pitching staffs have gotten somewhat older.
But I think that there's a, you know, there's a propensity from, from the draft to take younger pitchers sometimes than there is younger hitters or certainly more younger pitchers go to the draft, I think, than younger hitters do. And so that's why I think you got to be able to score this time of year, because the lineups just are too veteran. They're going to have their games, and if you don't have a lineup that can slug with them, you might be in trouble. And that's, again, that's the concern, I think, with Vanderbilt and Texas right now. Another big outcome yesterday. Georg loses to Duke 6 to 3. So Georgia is in the same situation where they've got to win three in two days to get out of the Athens Region. That's one of the ones I talked about earlier this week. I thought Duke had a good chance at getting out of Athens and winning that.
[00:22:14] Speaker C: Yeah, you nudged me. You nudged me last night. You said Duke's. Duke's beating Georgia. I predicted that. I was like, I thought, that's good stuff.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: I thought Duke had a good chance, you know, and I thought Ole Miss would have trouble getting out of Oxford, but I thought it'd be because of Georgia Tech, not because of, not because.
[00:22:29] Speaker C: Of Murray State racers.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: By the way, I like Dan Skurka a lot. Murray State's come in here a couple of times in the last few years. I've really enjoyed talking to him in those times when, when he's come in.
I think he's a really good coach and he's put himself on the map now. Oh, yeah. Looked at for. For bigger jobs, whether it be this off season or. Or moving forward.
[00:22:49] Speaker C: These Missouri Valley teams, why do they keep getting four seeds?
I mean, you had Evansville. Evansville was one game away from going to Omaha last year. Now Murray's one game away from Missouri Valley.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: It's kind of reshaped itself. You know, Wichita State ran that conference for so many years, and then it moved out. And Missouri State's in there, too.
[00:23:09] Speaker C: Not anymore.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: For now. Yeah, for now. They'll be out next year. Ole Miss beat Western Kentucky 8 to 6 yesterday. They're going to move on. They're going to play Georgia Tech in an elimination game today. That'll be quite interesting. Kentucky still alive. Beat South Carolina Upstate yesterday. Florida beat the snot out of Fairfield in an elimination game. So they're still standing in Conway, South Carolina, Alabama's out. Lost to Southern Miss in a real good game yesterday. Alabama scored two in the top of the seventh. Southern Miss scored three in the bottom of the eighth to win that game six to five.
So that's the end of the road for the Crimson Tide. Florida State beat Mississippi State Yesterday in the 1oh game in Tallahassee. So the Bulldogs need to win 3 and 2 days to advance. OU in the same situation, lost 11 to 5 at UNC in Chapel Hill yesterday.
Auburn, they're in the driver's seat at their home regional. Beat Stetson 8 to 5. And the other outcome yesterday, LSU looked really good, beating Dallas Baptist 12 to nothing. Dallas Baptist, that's a good team. Well, their game, you know, they had rain on Friday. They didn't till like probably about 2:00 in the morning.
[00:24:15] Speaker C: It was late.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. And so it was a real late night.
[00:24:19] Speaker C: I saw that. We thought they were going to play that, that, that night. That's like the tweet.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: Oh, the ncaa.
There's no postponing until tomorrow. Yeah, we saw that here. Whenever Arkansas and Missouri State played through the night in the rain in 2017.
[00:24:33] Speaker C: I've heard about the infamous rain game from.
I've got a buddy who covers Missouri State, Wyatt Wheeler. So I've heard about it from his point of view and I've heard about it from the, from everybody on the Arkansas beat. Sounds like it was a experience.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: I didn't get to bed till 8 o' clock in the morning after covering that. And that was a double header, by the way. Arkansas had beaten ORU earlier in the day and there was some rain delays with that too. And so it was get a.
[00:24:59] Speaker C: Get a press. I tell you, press box nap.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: And I slept for about three and a half hours. I do not remember the winner take all game. I know that Missouri State won and I know I was there. I couldn't tell you anything else about it because you're just existing at that point.
[00:25:13] Speaker C: That's kind of how I'm feeling right now. I'm just, I'm delirious. My head is, oh, this. I don't Know what planet I'm on.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: You haven't lived yet. You haven't lived.
You haven't gone through the crazy, crazy regionals. Hopefully none of that's in store here this weekend, but that's.
[00:25:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I could go for some madness.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: So Arkansas, they. They're going to throw Gage Wood tonight against whoever they end up playing.
Obviously didn't go great for him last time out against Tennessee or the time before that against lsu.
But he's been, he's rested now and I think he can go for as long as he really wants to. At this point, he's so far back, you know, from, from coming back from the shoulder surgery or not the surgery, the injury. Didn't have surgery from the shoulder injury that kept him out for about six weeks.
And, you know, it sets up well for him. These teams. I thought Zach Root made a good point last night and you touched on this.
These teams from these conferences don't see velocity a whole lot and Arkansas is going to bring Velocity Adam in waves tonight because it's not just Gage Wood that's. I mean, they got a lot of bullets down there that fresh and haven't pitched this weekend the way they've been able to handle this week so far. Only using three pitchers on Friday, only using the four pitchers last night and three of them only had to throw an inning a piece. I mean, this sets up really well for Arkansas against a team on the other side that's probably going to be pretty tired.
And you've got Arkansas swinging the bats well last night.
Never know how it's going to go in baseball, but it sets up well.
[00:26:43] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. And I think Dave Van Horten mentioned, you know, the pitching depth after the, after the regional opener against North Dakota State and how important it was to get, you know, guys going for, for long, for many innings because they didn't really get that same luxury in this regional opener last year against Semo. So I think that, that it's big. Right? So you get that the opportunity to have more guys on, on good rest and give them the opportunity to, to go longer as the, as the weekend draws on. And, you know, if, you know, even if you, even if you, you know, drop the game tonight and have to go again tomorrow, you're probably at least to some degree looking at a pretty fresh pitching staff, which is, which is huge.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: Well, I mean, you look at Arkansas's pitchers and just look at what they've done. Steeleves. I thought he threw really well last night. One inning. He can recycle at Some point Gage is starting. Aiden Jimenez, you know, I think he pitched a pitch count the other day that makes him available to be used, whether it be today or in the, if necessary game tomorrow. Gabe Gackel hasn't pitched. Cole Gibler has not pitched. Dylan Carter has not pitched. Landon vital. She's thrown two innings. He can be recycled. Parker Coyle's thrown 49 pitches. I think he can be recycled. Be it today or tomorrow. Colin Fisher an inning. Ben by being Will McIntyre hasn't pitched and Christian Fouch has not pitched. And so you go into a game where you got Wood, Gackle, Gibler, Fouch, for your top guys, have not pitched yet in this regional, you are able to hold Zach Root for game two. I mean, this is how you draw it up from a pitch. Like, like if you, if you go into a regional and you're like, hey, if every, if all the stars align, this is how it would look. This is how it would look. What they've been able to do the first two days.
[00:28:30] Speaker C: Yeah, no, it's, yeah, you, you get this, you know that this level of depth and everything that, and everything going as, as well as it, as it has to this point for Arkansas. I mean, you're, you're sitting in a really nice seat. Right?
So I, yeah, it's, it's looking pretty, pretty good from a pitching perspective. And especially I think, you know, they've seen both of these teams already, both North Dakota State and Creighton. So you kind of get rid of the, the variable of, you know, having not seen Kansas by this time, by this point, because North Dakota State beat Kansas yesterday. So even though, you know, some of these pitchers haven't pitched against these teams per se, I think it's still to, to have gone against the teams. I think that's.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: And they've probably gone against some of the pitchers they would see in the game tonight. Yeah, those teams are at the point where they've got to start bringing guys back.
And so Arkansas's probably seen them. This is what Dave Van Horn had to say last night about how Arkansas's pitching sets up for the rest of the weekend.
[00:29:33] Speaker D: You know, you go 2011-it's mentally, it's a big difference. And then, you know, knowing you have the burden of knowing that you, how many more games you have to win to try to get to Monday.
And it, you know, it weighs on you a little bit, but, you know, winning this game and not having to get into our bullpen too much.
[00:29:59] Speaker A: You.
[00:29:59] Speaker D: Know, freezes up to get ready for tomorrow with, with the, with the thought that, you know, we've got a lot of guys available.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: So here's again, Arkansas and Creighton or Arkansas and North Dakota State tonight. We'll find out. Probably about 4 or 5 o' clock, 4:30, 5 o' clock this afternoon is when that game ought to be wrapping up. Regardless, it's going to be an 8 o' clock first pitch. We've got that confirmed. There's not going to be any time change tonight. Sorry to disappoint.
[00:30:25] Speaker C: That's devastating.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: The game. The game is definitely going to be on ESPN plus. I always tell people that subject to change. Not that it's it'll be on ESPN plus regardless, but there is the chance that maybe a network comes in if there's rain or something else going on elsewhere that they could potentially come in and carry this. But it looks like it's just going to be a stream only game for right now. Arkansas has beaten both of these teams to start this regional and they've got a chance to punch their ticket to the Super Regional with a win Tonight in this 8 o' clock game against either Creighton or North Dakota State. Hope we'll see you at our website, wholehogsports.com throughout the day. You can read all of our coverage, including a game recap from what's going on with Creighton and North Dakota State in the early game. And obviously we'll have a ton of coverage after the game tonight out at Baum Walker Stadium. We'll be back with one of our normal podcasts tomorrow Monday morning here in our studio. Hope to see you there. Have a great day everybody.
