Arkansas in the College World Series: A Hard Purple and Gold Reality Check

Razorback Expats by Columnist Written on June 16, 2009
12 Jun 2000: A fan of the LSU Tiger celebrates in the stands during the  the College World Series at the Resenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska. Mandatory Credit: Andy Lyons  /Allsport

A swing and a miss, a swing and a miss, another swing and a miss. That pretty much describes the Razorbacks last night against LSU’s Coleman who lived up to his billing as SEC Pitcher of the Year and defeated the Razorbacks once again this season.

He didn’t exactly limit the Hogs to two hits like the previous outing in Fayetteville, but it mattered little because the Hogs were giving up home runs and just runs left and right in a 9-1 defeat.

That end result puts LSU in a good place to reach the championship bracket. The Hogs will have to defeat Virginia on Wednesday night and then beat LSU twice. All LSU has to do is win one more game against either Arkansas or Virginia.

In the CWS, you really are in the driver’s seat if you win those first two games.

The ESPN stat of the night that I saw as I was watching the Hogs go out with a whimper is that 17 of the last 19 champions won their first two games. Ouch.

The Hogs will have to battle against two good baseball teams and some stiff odds to get to the championship bracket. I am not counting them out, but I can’t count them “in” as much as I could before Coleman got his claws into them.

I am pretty sure Dave Van Horn is going to be heard uttering these words a lot today: “One game at a time, men.”

If the Hogs start thinking too far ahead about the hill they have to climb, they’ll psych themselves out of it for sure.  For both Arkansas and Virginia, a lot depends upon which team has the best psychologist as coach.

I think a lot of Hog fans were not feeling too good about this game going in to it. And I think a lot of us were thinking the same thing, ”Uh Oh, an SEC team.”

That’s been the trend this year in all three major sports. The Hogs have done well in out-of-conference play, but have struggled with SEC brethren.

I also was not feeling good in the gut about Eibner at the mound. That feeling got confirmed, unfortunately, from the get-go.

Forrest put in some good innings, and you have to wonder if he had started and the Tigers hadn’t gotten ahead so quickly so early, things might have gone differently, or at least not as badly.

I am off to watch  London Crawford catching that pass from Casey Dick on YouTube. After a night of too much going right for the purple and gold, I think it is just the pick me up I need.

(0)
...
Share This  
Crop_45x45
or to post this comment

1 Comments

There are no comments yet. Get the conversation started by leaving the first comment

Loading more comments...
posted just now
  • Loading...
  • Nobody has liked this comment yet
Cancel

This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete

53
reads

1
comments

written on June 16, 2009 Sports