Old College World Series nemesis haunts Arkansas again

Much attention is put on the dropped pop-up in Game 2, but not much is ever said about Kevin Abel's complete game shutout against the Hogs in Game 3, the only time Arkansas was shutout that entire season.

Yeskie is the only active assistant coach to take four schools to the College World Series, including Oregon State three times, Arizona State when Johnson was the head coach in 2021 and Texas A&M in 2022.

In a roundabout way, it was Arkansas' chance to right the wrongs of seven years ago against someone who played a key role in Oregon State's success across the series, not just one play. But Yeskie came up with the goods again against an even more powerful Arkansas offense.

The Razorbacks came in leading most offensive categories among Power Four schools, but it would have been hard to tell from Arkansas' 10 strikeout perfromance against a trio of the Tigers' top arms.

The combination of Anderson, Chase Shores and Casan Evans held Arkansas to just four hits, its second lowest total of the season. They had three hits in Arlington against TCU in the second week of the season.

Yeskie spoke to reporters down on the field after the game about Anderson's composure and ability to shut down Arkansas' line-up even after giving the a solo homer to Reese Robinett.

"He recognizes it," Yeskie said. "We talk about it all the time, a solo when you're up three or four, you don't like it. But it's how you respond to those things and he's responded to everything in tremendous fashion throughout his time here."

Hogs coach Dave Van Horn mentioned postgame that it was Arkansas' inability to build off any momentum that ultimately became their undoing.

"You start getting into the fifth [and] sixth inning and you start getting concerned." Van Horn said. "Reese hit a home run and still nobody out. That would have been big. We had another inning where we had the lead-off man on. He gets to second on a wild pitch and we don't score him."

There's work to do for both teams before they could meet again, giving the Hogs another crack at Yeskie's pitching staff, especially for Arkansas. The Razorbacks will need to get through Murray State and ULCA, should LSU beat the Bruins, which they are statistical favorites on paper.

"We treated every game like a playoff," Anderson said about a potential rematch. "We'll be ready to go. We've faced them four times. I like the results of what we had. Just continuing to go out there and battle."

First pitch between Murray State and Arkansas is scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday and will be broadcast on ESPN.

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