The Racers take the field as just the fourth regional #4 seed to make it to Omaha since the championship tournament expanded to 64 teams more than 25 years ago, and their reward is a date with the Big Ten champions UCLA, winners of ten of their last eleven games. Murray State went quietly in the top of the 1st and the coach that had carried them this far in their fairytale started to lurch as soon as UCAL came up to face junior Nic Schutte in the home half of the inning. With one out, consensus first team All-American shortstop Roch Cholowsky doubled and Schutte hit both Mulivai Levu and Roman Martin with pitches to load the bases with Bruins. Schutte's feel for the strike zone did not improve with AJ Salgado at the plate, and ball four to the UCLA rightfielder brought in the first run of the game. Payton Brennan followed with a two-run single and Cashel Dugger brought in one more with a two-out base hit to give the Californians a 4-0 lead after one inning of play. Things didn't really improve for Schutte or the Racers in the 2nd, either - another walk and hit batsman set the table for Levu, who ripped one over the head of Jonathan Hogart in center for a two-run three-base hit that ended the MSU starter's day after only twelve batters; another two-out hit from Brennan brought Levu home to make the score 7-0 after UCLA had used only six of their 27 outs. Phoenix Call homered in the third to make it eight, and Salgado singled home Martin after a 6th-inning double for UCLA's ninth run. Meanwhile, Barnett was tearing through the Racer lineup - he held Murray State hitless until a 5th-inning double by Luke Mistone, and gave up two singles with one away in the 7th, but that was it as the junior spins a complete-game three-hit shutout with one walk and seven strikeouts. Brennan had three hits and three RBI as the #2-#6 hitters in the Bruins lineup combine to go 10-for-21 with seven runs scored and seven driven in. UCLA 9-13-0, Murray State 0-3-0. [scoresheet]
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| Payton Brennan strokes three singles, knocks in three |
This was the one that everyone had circled once the results of the Super Regionals had made the Omaha bracket clear - two of the top three teams in the nation's toughest conference, a collection of elite talent including the Golden Spikes Award winner and the presumptive #1 MLB Draft pitching prospect, and two of the most energetic fanbases in college baseball (LSU led the nation in attendance, Arkansas finished third) converging on Charles Schwab Field. The Tigers got the party started - well, at least that part of the party that their fans hadn't been having all day in Omaha's bars - when, with two outs in the 2nd, Derek Curiel drew a walk, stole second, and scampered home on Daniel Dickinson's base hit. Root wriggled free after Dickinson swiped second and Chris Stanfield walked, but LSU used a similar formula to double their lead in the 5th - after Michael Braswell III had bunted into a double play to erase a leadoff walk by Stanfield, Josh Pearson worked another free pass (Root walked five and fanned eight) then stole second and scored when Ethan Frey doubled down the left-field line. With Anderson throwing seeds (4 Ks through four), it looked like the Razorbacks had a hill to climb, but they got the big hit in the 5th. Cam Kozeal led off with a single and Justin Thomas Jr collected one of his own with two outs. That brought up Charles Davalan, and the spectacular sophomore drove one through the RCF gap and all the way to the wall for a two-run triple that tied the game at two scores apiece. Root got into hot water in the 7th when Stanfield and Braswell singled with one out, but Aiden Jimenez came out of the pen to get a big double-play ball off Frey's bat to end the threat. The score was still tied when Davalan came up again in the 8th with Anderson having retired eight in a row but the Arkansas outfielder retired the baseball, driving it into the left-field bleachers for the go-ahead run with only three LSU outs remaining. Those outs were entrusted to Christian Foutch, and the junior Arkansas closer struck out two of the three Tigers to bat to lock down the huge victory for the Hogs - not just SEC bragging rights, but a trip to the winners' half of the bracket. Arkansas 3-7-1, LSU 2-4-0. [scoresheet]
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| Charles Davalan with a triple and game-deciding homer |
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