Tigers, Hogs meet for fifth time in bracket final

By Hunt Palmer

OMAHA, Neb.—Only four remain in America’s heartland.

And for the third consecutive trip to Omaha, I believe LSU will face its toughest competition in the bracket final. The Tigers took down a 56-4 Oregon State team twice in 2017. Those Beavers came back the next year and won it all. And LSU famously toppled No. 1 Wake Forest on back-to-back nights in 2023 on the way to a title. Two of those Demon Deacons are already playing Major League Baseball.

This time it’s Arkansas.

Since LSU dealt the Hogs an opening round loss on Saturday, the Razorback pitching staff has hardly broken a sweat. Gage Wood made history with the third no-hitter in College World Series history on Sunday, and Zach Root, Aiden Jimenez and Will McEntire combined to take down UCLA on Tuesday night.

At this point in the tournament, most pitching staffs are without aces and have used high-leverage bullpen arms along the way. While that is the case here, there is still a ton of talent ticketed for the Charles Schwab Field mound over the next two days (if necessary).

ARM FARMS

So, what do we expect? Let’s start with LSU.

Kade Anderson threw 100 pitches on Saturday, and LSU is not in a must-win situation like Arkansas. If we use the Paul Skenes plan from 2023 as a reference, Anderson would be available on four days of rest (MLB standard) for a Thursday game. I doubt he sees the mound on Wednesday.

Casan Evans is also unavailable. He fired 68 pitches in Tuesday’s resumption. Those are the two arms I would be stunned to see.

Anthony Eyanson becomes the big question. He threw 44 pitches on Monday night. It would shock me to see Eyanson start the game, but I think there is one scenario where Eyanson could very well enter the game—a razor-thin LSU lead in the eighth or ninth.

Eyanson has excelled out of the bullpen in two big outings. I think 25 pitches in the eighth and/or ninth is on the table.

Chase Shores threw 10 pitches Saturday and 11 on Tuesday. He is available on Wednesday.

Everyone else is a go, so the plan likely looks like this:

Zac Cowan and Jaden Noot are the most likely candidates to get between six and nine outs each.

DJ Primeaux and Cooper Williams are likely candidates to get a tough left-handed out like Logan Maxwell or Reese Robinett.

Jacob Mayers and Mavrick Rizy are probably one inning guys with max effort.

Shores and Eyanson are available for three to six outs.

That makes a roadmap like this plausible (I realize mapping out a game out-by-out is impossible, but humor the exercise):

Cowan for 2.1

Rizy for .2

Noot for 2.1

Williams for .2

Mayers for 1

Eyanson for 1

Shores for 1

As far as Arkansas goes, they’re without a couple of big bullets, but the staff is in really good shape for having played an extra game.

Root and Wood are down. Wood threw 119 on Monday, and that was 30 more than he’d thrown in any game this year. Root started Tuesday night.

Jimenez threw 41 on Tuesday, so he’s probably down.

The rest of the staff should be ready.

Landon Beidelshies started nine SEC games this year as the No. 3 starter and hasn’t thrown a pitch in Omaha. The southpaw is the likely starter. More on that to come.

As far as trusted bullpen arms, Cole Gibler has been fantastic for the Hogs down the stretch. LSU saw him briefly on Saturday night when Derek Curiel punched that RBI single to left field. Dylan Carter made 22 appearances out of the bullpen this year with a 2.18ERA. He’s available. Parker Coil made 14 appearances with a 1.27 ERA, That’s another high-end left-handed arm. Fireballing Christian Foutch only threw eight pitches Saturday night. He’s ready.

And I wouldn’t rule out Gabe Gaeckle who threw 90 pitches on Saturday. Dave Van Horn would ideally like to start Gaeckle on Thursday, but his season is on the line Wednesday night. Gaeckle is probably an option.

That’s plenty of arms to navigate 27 outs.

LEFTY LANDON

Beidelshies was just okay as an SEC starter this year. He posted a 6.56 ERA in league play, allowing 38 hits and 26 earned runs in 35.2IP. SEC hitters hit .279 against him with a eye-popping 12 homers.

The Mothers’ Day start he made against LSU is a great example of what Wednesday could look like.

The Tigers tagged him for three earned runs on four hits in just two innings. After he left the game, Carter, Foutch, Gibler, Jimenez and Coil combined to allow one run over seven innings with 11 strikeouts.

The premium stuff Arkansas has to throw in this game is out of the bullpen, not with Beidelshies. He’s a pitchability left-hander

SLUMP SNAPPED?

Arkansas didn’t score much in its first 22 innings of CWS play. They only scratched one off of Anderson and Co. on Saturday and only backed up Wood’s no-no with three runs on a poor Murray State staff.

However, the production may not be as bad as it looked on the scoreboard. Arkansas did get 10 hits on Monday against the Racers, leaving nine men on base, and finally busted loose on a tired UCLA staff on Tuesday night for seven runs. That’s 20 hits over the last 18 innings.

Arkansas won’t be looking at Anderson on Wednesday, so expect some offense from the Razorbacks.

TOUGH TIGERS

I’d expect offense from LSU, too.

The Tigers really looked great at the plate against UCLA on Monday and Tuesday. Jared Jones crushed a mistake for a homer. Steven Milam continued his torrid postseason with two more big hits. He’s 12-for-26 (.462) in NCAA Tournament play with 12 RBI.

Every starter but Braswell got a hit against the Bruins, and LSU was only set down in order twice in eight at bats.

HOME TEAM

Arkansas was the home team on Saturday against LSU and Tuesday against UCLA. Their only time in the visitors’ dugout was the Murray State game. LSU was the visitor against Arkansas on Saturday and the home team against UCLA on Monday.

That means, because LSU has been home in 1-of-2 games and Arkansas has been home 2-of-3 games, the Tigers are the home team on Wednesday.

Those numbers will flip in an “if necessary” game on Thursday meaning the Razorbacks would be the home team.