Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
By Hunt Palmer
The 2025 College World Series fires up Friday afternoon.
Charles Schwab Field will be buzzing for what feels like a wide-open event. LSU’s side of the bracket, which includes No. 3 seed Arkansas, No. 15 seed UCLA and Murray State, gets things rolling Saturday as part of a double header.
One of those four teams will emerge from the bracket and play in the championship series beginning Saturday June 21.
We’ll take a look at all four teams as part of our Bracket Breakdown series, examining their path to this point, strengths, weaknesses and more.
We continue with the No. 3 national seed–Arkansas.
HOW’D THEY GET HERE
The Razorbacks have won 48 games to this point, 20 of those came in the SEC’s regular season. That began with a 12-1 start to league play that was abruptly halted with two straight losses at Georgia. That series loss started a run of four series losses in five weekends. The lone series win in the stretch was a dominant sweep of No. 1 Texas in Fayetteville.
Arkansas exercised some Baum-Walker postseason demons by breezing through the Fayetteville Regional. The Razorbacks had lost back-to-back home regionals coming in. What was billed as the premier super regional turned into a Razorback romp of Tennessee. SEC Pitcher of the Year Liam Doyle was ousted in the fourth inning of the decisive game two, an 11-4 Arkansas win.
This Razorback team features four All-Americans, a veteran coach and a truckload of confidence after two exceptional weeks of postseason play.
It’s a dangerous club.
WHY THEY’LL ADVANCE
There’s not really a flaw.
Zach Root isn’t Hagen Smith. He’s sprinkled in a couple of rough outings in an otherwise stellar year. Kevin Kopps isn’t walking through that door to claim the Golden Spikes Award out of the bullpen. But this team has everything a championship club needs in terms of talent and depth.
Root dominated Texas over eight shutout innings. He fired six two-run innings at LSU. Last week in the super regional he pitched (and acted) like a man possessed. He allowed one earned run in seven innings against the Vols.
Zach Root put on a masterclass tonight🫡
8 IP
2 H
0 ER
11 K (career high)A DOMINANT performance to beat No. 1 Texas.
(🎥@RazorbackBSB)
pic.twitter.com/m2biqEsOyv— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) May 2, 2025
Gabe Gaeckle has reemerged as a bullpen ace after a bumpy stint as the Friday starter. He struck out 46 in 35.1 SEC innings.
Gage Wood and Christian Fautch both throw upwards of 98 mph out of the bullpen, and Cole Gibler has become a force as a left-handed reliever. The freshman’s last four appearances have been against LSU, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Tennessee a second time. He’s worked nine innings of shutout baseball allowing five hits and three walks with 14 strikeouts. The pitching depth for the Hogs is outstanding.
Gage Wood’s 41.7% K-BB% ranks first in the SEC (min. 20 IP).
Wood’s arsenal is headlined by a mid-90s FF w/ 17” vert from a 5.6 vRel. It’s a big time bat misser with plenty of miss in the zone. He’ll also throw a 82-84 MPH downer CB and mix in a high-80s gyro-SL. pic.twitter.com/X8pMhmhBF9
— Kareem (@KareemSSN) June 3, 2025
The offense has the fourth highest OPS in the country and ranks fourth in home runs. They’re sixth in slugging and 12th in batting average at .313 which led the SEC.
Wehiwa Aloy is the SEC Player of the Year and a Golden Spikes finalist. He’s got 20 homers. Seven of the Hogs’ top nine hitters have at least 13.
Kuhio Aloy: leads the SEC in RBI
Wehiwa Aloy: leads the SEC in RunsDavid Dellucci takes a closer look at @RazorbackBSB‘s Bash Braddahs 🔥 pic.twitter.com/PSnRwJLMCC
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) May 5, 2025
And they led the nation in fielding.
WHY THEY WON’T
They have to play LSU first. Drawing Kade Anderson, even as well as Arkansas hits lefties, or Anthony Eyanson is not ideal.
Arkansas’s lone Achilles heel may be the strikeout. Only Oregon State has a worse strikeout percentage in the field, and LSU’s Saturday starter, whoever it is, is top three nationally in strikeouts. Of course, Arkansas just saw the other member of the top three in its most recent game, and that went just fine.
Kade Anderson has a pretty strong case as the No. 1 college pitcher in this class. Does the little things well. Impressive 67.2% first-pitch strike%. Repeats arm slot. Misses are safe to break-side. 11 of last 12 starts 90+ pitches. Young, projection.pic.twitter.com/ZffVwjdv3c
— Joe Doyle (@JoeDoyleMiLB) May 20, 2025
Perhaps there is added pressure on Arkansas because every Razorback team that shows up in Omaha knows how often Dave Van Horn and the program have been and how they’ve gone home empty handed every time.
That’s a pressure LSU, Oregon State, Coastal Carolina, Arizona and UCLA don’t have to play with. They’ve all won titles in the last 25 years. Murray State sure as heck isn’t dealing with that, either. Louisville is, but it’s to a lesser degree. No fanbase in America is hungrier for a baseball title than Arkansas.
Win or lose against LSU, Wood is likely the next in line to start a game, and he hasn’t reached the 90 pitch mark this season. Arkansas has eased him forward after missing time with injury. And the third starter has been TBA more often than not.
So, the rotation isn’t set in stone and is unlikely to eat up a huge chunk of outs beyond Root. It’s more of a committee approach. It helps when someone can get 18-to-21 outs in a losers’ bracket game (think Nate Ackenhausen ’23 and Caleb Gilbert ’17 for LSU). But, as I alluded to above, Arkansas has arms to turn to.
Lastly, Arkansas is 37-4 at home. They’re just one game over .500 on the road and one game over .500 at neutral sites. Those splits aren’t totally uncommon in the SEC, but the friendly confines of Baum-Walker are in the rearview mirror.
HOW LSU IS AFFECTED
The Tigers have had issues with left-handers, and Root is a damn good lefty. Arkansas has hit left-handers better than anyone in the field, and Anderson is LSU’s likely starter.
The LSU southpaw did see Arkansas in May, and the results were decent from both perspectives. Anderson worked into the sixth and allowed three runs. Arkansas got him for seven hits, but he punched out 10 with only one walk.
A day later, Eyanson worked six shutout innings with 11 strikeouts and one walk. That has to at least enter Jay Johnson’s mind when naming a Saturday starter, even if Eyanson is on a day short rest.
What an absolute zoo of a way to walk off run rule Arkansas to take the series 🤣🤣
LSU doesnt lose at The Box pic.twitter.com/nwXI6f3s7t
— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) May 11, 2025
The Tigers also won’t enjoy a massive partisan crowd on Saturday. While the purple and gold will undoubtedly show up, northwest Arkansas is just a six-hour drive from Omaha. So, the environment will likely be split.
The winner of Saturday’s game will be a massive betting favorite to win the College World Series, so it’s safe to say Arkansas affects LSU plenty.
Check out more of our Bracket Breakdowns:
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