Arkansas advanced at the College World Series with a 7-3 win over UCLA Tuesday night in Omaha.
Arkansas (50-14) got a good start from Zach Root and bullpen help from Aiden Jimenez and Will McEntire. In addition, shortstop Wehiwa Aloy made his case for the best player in college baseball with a home run and triple along with three runs batted in. Dave Van Horn was pleased to see his team take care of business one more time.
"I thought it was just a great job by our pitchers tonight," Van Horn said. "Zach Root threw 38 pitches a few days ago. Threw 87 tonight. Only gave up three hits. Didn't give up a run. Just did a tremendous job. And Aiden came in and gave us three really good innings. The last inning, you know, give them credit, they hook a ball down the line. They line out. But other than that, we made a few mistakes.
"Just a really solid job by our offense, getting on base. And Wehiwa got the big hit, gave us a cushion. Went oppo and hit it really hard. And obviously the big two-out hit off the wall scored another run. Then put him on, walked him to get to (Logan) Maxwell and he fought off a few pitches. Got him a breaking ball, hit in the gap and scored two more. Those are -- all runs are driven in there with two outs. That was the separator. Gave us an opportunity to save our bullpen a little bit and get ready for the next game."
Maxwell did get two hits as well and drove in a pair of runs with a double to left field in the bottom of the seventh to plate Aloy and Brent Iredale. As Van Horn noted, UCLA gave an intentional pass to Aloy with two outs, but Maxwell made them pay with his big hit. But it was the Aloy two-run blast over the fence in right field that gave the Hogs a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first that Maxwell wanted to talk about.
"It gave us a lot of confidence as a group," Maxwell said. "It was a big swing, especially in the first inning, scoring first. Kind of building off of that, it was pretty good."
Aloy described what happened on his blast to the bullpen in opposite field.
"Yeah, the wind kind of shifted a little bit," Aloy said. "I seen the ball going there. Got it pretty good and put some runs on for the team."
Root had struggled on Saturday night against LSU. He was pulled after 1.2 innings and 38 pitches. On Wednesday, Root (9-6) picked up the win going five innings. He allowed just three hits, no runs, walked two and struck out five.
"Yeah, I expected it," Root said. "(Matt) Hobbs pulled me aside the day after and said, we're just going to get you back as soon as possible. And he'd let me know when that is. I told him I was good to go whenever he needed me.
"It felt great to go out there put my team in like a great chance to win. I mean, Ryder (Helfrick) called a really good game. And Zane Becker, he needs a shout out because he just does so much behind the scenes for me up in between innings, warming guys up in the bullpen. And he's as big a part of this as anyone else."
Jimenez pitched three innings and only allowed one hit. McEntire worked the ninth and surrendered all three runs on two hits and a walk.
The score with Aloy's first-inning blast stayed the same until the bottom of the fifth. Aloy delivered a two-out triple that allowed Brent Iredale to score for a 3-0 advantage.
In the seventh is when Maxwell's double plated Iredale and Aloy for a 5-0 lead. In the eighth, Cam Kozeal scored from third on a wild pitch after he had walked and then stole second. Iredale also walked and scored on a double by Justin Thomas Jr.
UCLA tried to get a comeback in the top of the ninth, but it fell way short. UCLA used seven pitchers in the game with starter Cody Delvecchio taking the loss. He pitched four innings, allowed seven hits and three runs. UCLA lost to LSU 9-5 earlier Tuesday to finish up a game that had started Monday night.
Arkansas will now advance to face LSU Wednesday night at 6 p.m. on ESPN. Arkansas must defeat LSU twice to advance to the finals. LSU defeated the Razorbacks 4-1 on Saturday night. Van Horn didn't reveal who will get the start on the mound Wednesday night.
"We don't know who we're pitching yet, honestly," Van Horn said. "We'll know probably -- when do we have to turn the lineup in, about an hour and 50 minutes before -- yeah.
"We have a couple of options, obviously a couple left, couple right, guys that have started some games this year. We'll just try to piece it together tomorrow and see how it goes. But we're not 100 percent sure who we're going to throw yet."