FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas pitcher Connor Noland has always had the smile.
Going back to his Greenwood days when he was mowing down people on his way to a state title, he just looked like he was having fun playing baseball.
Saturday morning he was having fun.
He probably could have gone longer than the 89 pitches he threw in shutting down the Tarheels in the first game of the Super Regional in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Connor was having fun.
Over his 6.2 innings of work he was like a surgeon. When he's on there aren't a lot of free passes and he only walked one North Carolina batter. He struck out six and had seven fielding outs.
He was making all kinds of plays in the field, leaving with one batter left in the seventh inning and Evan Taylor took care of that with one pitch.
Noland set the stage for a path to Omaha.
The Razorbacks now have a rested staff that Matt Hobs and Dave Van Horn can play with over the next two days. Taylor threw just 18 pitches and Hagen Smith finished with 19.
That's it for pitchers used in the first game.
If they can close things out Sunday, they would be set up very well for the next stop.
That is, granted, a big IF. With two more games to go, nothing is guaranteed for these Hogs that have been up and down all season long.
Only the most diehard fans expected them to be in this position just a few weeks ago.
Now they have things set up about as well as Van Horn could have hoped headed into the second game of the regional.
More must-reads: