LSU gives Arkansas taste of its own medicine in dominating performance

OMAHA, Neb. — For much of the season, coach Dave Van Horn has waxied lyrical about his team's ability to work counts and make a pitcher work.

"We just foul off pitches," coach Dave Van Horn said after the Super Regional. "We just fight you. We get your pitch count up and we do a good job. We just battle."

On the brightest stage of it all, that suddenly disappeared as Kade Anderson faced just four over the minimum in seven innings of shutout ball on exactly 100 pitches in a 4-1 LSU win.

LSU Tigers starting pitcher Kade Anderson (32) throws against the Arkansas Razorbacks during the first inning at Charles Schwab Field. | Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

He even came back out for the eighth and probably could have kept going if LSU didn't have one of the most powerful fastballs in the country in Chase Shores looming in the bullpen.

After making Anderson throw 105 pitches in the regular season matchup against LSU in just 5 2/3 innings, Anderson used a pair of 5-4-3 double plays to keep his pitch count under control when the Hogs did get any traffic on in Omaha.

"I take every outing with a grain of salt," Anderson said about facing Arkansas in the regular season. Just looking to prepare for the next one. You look back a little bit, but every week is different."

In a cruel stroke of irony, it was LSU that battled the Arkansas pitchers into submission, not the other way around. The Tigers had 11 two-strike foul balls to extend at-bats and run Arkansas' pitch count up.

Arkansas had just two two-strike foul balls. The Razorback pitching staff was tasked with throwing 157 total pitches to LSU's 123.

The Tigers were the ones that knew how to play the ballpark, manuacturing three runs by going station-to-station.

The Tigers squared around to bunt three different times in the three-run second inning, including a perfect bunt from second baseman Daniel Dickinson.

It was freshman left fielder Derek Curiel that proved to be the pesky out in the lineup on a day when the two teams combined to strike out 26 times. The true freshman reached base three times, battling back from two-strike counts each time.

"The first at-bat might have been one of the most under-noticed [and] most important at-bats in the game," LSU coach Jay Johnson said. "He fell down 0-2 to Zach Root, and fought his way back to walk, to put a runner in scoring position for the first time."

Curiel did it again in the eighth. In a 0-2 count, Cole Gibler left a slider just up enough for him to punch a ball into left for an insurance run after Reese Robinett hit a solo homer and the momentum just slowly looked to turn towards the Hogs.

LSU Tigers left fielder Derek Curiel (6) runs to first after hitting a RBI single against the Arkansas Razorbacks during the eighth inning at Charles Schwab Field. | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

"Trusting myself with two strikes," Curiel said. "Whether that's taking or swinging. I know, with my hand-eye coordination, I could be able to battle in any count. So I'm never defeated in the box, even when I go down 0-2 on two pretty ugly swings, probably my two ugliest swings of the year."

Some of Arkansas' inability to elongate at-bats was just down to Anderson's pure talent. Van Horn seemed to be tipping his cap postgame to someone who is just a few months away from a potential hefty signing bonus as a draft eligible sophomore.

"Even his misses are close." Van Horn said. "He missed a lot of pitches away to righties that you could tell he was a little frustrated that it was that tight. Changes speeds just enough."

For the first 61 games of the season, Arkansas largely maintained the same approach, regardless of the quality of pitcher.

The Razorbacks just came off a Super Regional win over Golden Spikes Award finalist Liam Doyle and Tennessee by forcing him out of the game after just 70 pitches because of their approach. They did it to Anderson himself the first time they met.

Arkansas has one shot at redemption to return to the formula that got them here against Murray State in an elimiation game. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday and will be broadcast on ESPN.

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