Arkansas wins opener of super regional, 4-3

Arkansas win gives Hogs 1-0 lead

Arkansas wins opening game of the NCAA Fayetteville Super Regional, 4-3 as Zach Root and Gabe Gaeckle pitched a combined two-hitter to lift Arkansas (47-13) to a 4-3 win against Tennessee (46-18) Saturday at Baum-Walker Stadium in game one of the NCAA baseball Super Regional.

With their super regional-opening win, the Razorbacks will play for the opportunity to advance to the College World Series tomorrow afternoon. First pitch in game two between the Hogs and Vols is set for 2 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.

Root, who earned the win to improve to 8-5, turned in his second postseason gem in as many outings, firing seven innings of two-run ball (one earned) with six strikeouts against a dangerous Tennessee lineup. Gaeckle, meanwhile, closed out the final two frames, allowing a run and punching out a pair to card his second save of the season.

The Volunteers were limited to two hits — both of which were home runs. Tennessee took a 2-1 lead in the fifth on a two-run blast after a runner reached first on an error before belting a one-out solo shot in the top of the ninth.

Arkansas opened the scoring in the bottom of the second, going up 1-0 on a wild pitch. Cam Kozeal, who reached on a leadoff single before advancing to third, scrambled home on the wild pitch to put the Razorbacks on the board first.

Tennessee went ahead in the top of the fifth on the two-home run, but Ryder Helfrick responded with a two-run homer of his own in the bottom half of the inning to give Arkansas a 3-2 lead. The Razorback catcher, who swatted his 14th long ball of the season, has homered in three consecutive postseason games to raise his season slash line to .329/.450/.659.

Charles Davalan’s two-out RBI single in the sixth extended the Hogs’ advantage to two. Root worked a scoreless seventh before passing the ball off to Gaeckle, who closed out the game and secured Arkansas’4-3 super regional-opening win.

Three Razorbacks, including Davalan (2-for-3, RBI), finished with multiple hits in Saturday’s victory. Logan Maxwell (2-for-3) and Brent Iredale (2-for-4) also chipped in with multi-hit performances, as Arkansas tallied 10 hits in the ballgame.

With a win tomorrow, Arkansas can advance to Omaha for the eighth time in the Dave Van Horn era (2003-pres.) and the 12th time in program history, also doing so in 1979, 1985, 1987, 1989, 2004, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2022.

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