Field set for College World Series
Arkansas, Florida State set for first round match- up
sports@theeveningtimes.com
The 2019 College World Series begins June 15 and runs through June 25/26, and it’ll be back at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska — marking the 70th straight year that the city has hosted the event.
After two rounds of regional and super regional play to start the NCAA tournament, eight teams advanced to the CWS — Texas Tech, Michigan, Arkansas, Florida State, Vanderbilt, Louisville, Mississippi State, and Auburn.
In Omaha, they’ll play in two double elimination brackets. The winners of each faces off in a best-ofthree finals series for the national championship.
First round games are as follows: Saturday, June 15 — Game 1: Texas Tech vs.
Michigan, 2 p.m., ESPN Saturday, June 15 — Game 2: Arkansas vs.
Florida State, 7 p.m., ESPN Sunday, June 16 — Game 3: Vanderbilt vs.
Louisville, 2 p.m., ESPN Sunday, June 16 — Game 4: Mississippi State vs.
Auburn, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2 Including two appearances with Nebraska in 2001 and 2002 and now seven trips with Arkansas (2004, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2019) to the College World Series, head coach Dave Van Horn is now tied for 14th-most appearances in Omaha all-time, tying him with Ron Polk. He will have the most appearances of any current head coach in the SEC and will have the second-most of any coach in this year’s CWS field.
The Razorbacks are now 4-1 in Super Regional Game 3 scenarios.
2002 – L, 7-4 at No. 2 Clemson (Clemson, S.C.) 2012 – W, 1-0 (10) at No.
4 Baylor (Waco, Texas) 2015 – W, 3-2 vs Missouri State (Fayetteville) 2018 – W, 14-4 vs South Carolina (Fayetteville) 2019 – W, 14-1 vs. Ole Miss (Fayeteville) Following Monday’s win over Ole Miss, Van Horn was elated.
“What a great win for our program, the state, the university,” said the coach. “I could go on and on. The fans. For us to get back to Omaha for the second year in a row. It’s hard enough just to get there once every now and then. But to get there two years in a row with a bunch of guys that watched on the side last year or maybe weren’t even with us.”
Van Horn relishes the chance to get back to the CWS.
“What a thrill for me as coach to be a part of this and to watch these guys celebrate and the joy,” he said. “It’s like I told them at the beginning, the pressure for me is during the season. This is fun for me.
I love Omaha. I love going to Omaha. But I really, really, truly mean it when I [say] I want them to get there and I just kind of want to go with them. It was just an incredible, incredible ride, a journey or whatever you want to call it this season. Win or lose it’s going to finish in Omaha and that’s where you want to finish.”
“Yeah, we knew going into this team it was all hands on deck for both teams,” said Hogs’ pitcher Cody Scroggins on entering the game in the second inning. “Pitching was depleted, so I just kind of knew all hands on deck when I was getting warmed up. I knew it was my time. I came in the second inning and he just told me the count and said ‘go get ‘em’ and that’s what I did.”
Slugger Heston Kjerstad was hyped to get back to the College World Series.
“It’s just awesome to win that game three and send us back to Omaha this year,” said Kjerstad. “It’s been a fun year with all the guys and you know it’s taken everybody on the team. The whole roster.
Everybody’s contributed.
That’s why we’re a team.
It took a team effort and we’re excited to get back to Omaha.”
Casey Opitz offered his take on what prepared Arkansas to make another run to the College World Series after the way 2018 ended “You know, just playing in the SEC, you’re ready for this moment. You kind of tell with all these SEC teams in these supers, it’s just when you go throughout that grind in the regular season then you’re ready for these moments,” said Optiz. “You’re ready for these tough games and we proved that right today.”
