Hogs, Rebs turn to aces on short rest with spot in CWS finals up for grabs
OMAHA, Neb. — It will be a battle of aces on short rest with a spot in the national championship series on the line Thursday afternoon.
Right-handers Connor Noland and Dylan DeLucia will be on the mound in a winner-take-all game just five days after leading Arkansas and Ole Miss, respectively, to wins in their opening games of the College World Series.
“If you would have asked four or five months ago in February, would you like this opportunity to have your ace on the mound in a winner-take-all to get you the Championship Series, everybody would say yes,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said.
Both pitchers turned in excellent starts in Omaha, lasting an identical 7 2/3 innings and giving their teams an opportunity to play in the winner’s bracket.
Now they’ll be facing each other on just four days rest — two less than normal — with a chance to play for their school’s first national title in a best-of-three series against Oklahoma beginning Saturday.
That may not be an ideal situation, but Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn and Bianco each said it was the plan all along.
“We weren't going to use (Noland) tonight or we would have used him,” Van Horn said. “Give him another day. He's been preparing for it and working out, just like their guy. He was long tossing today. We saw him. We watched. We knew that he was getting ready for tomorrow if needed.”
“It would have been nice to start Dylan on Saturday, but you've got to get to Saturday,” Bianco said. “That's not the reason he didn't throw today. It was really just giving him another day of rest so he would be at his best. It shapes up for a really good game.”
Although they pitched the same number of innings Saturday, their outings were quite different.
Noland (3.75 ERA, 108 IP) was incredibly efficient against Stanford. The first 14 batters he faces saw no more than three pitches and he had four innings in which he threw single-digit pitches. That kept his pitch count down and he was lifted having thrown just 79 low-stress pitches.
DeLucia (4.07 ERA, 86.1 IP) was more dominant on the mound, limiting Auburn to just four hits while not issuing a single walk. He gave up one run and struck out 10, compared to Noland’s two runs and one strikeout, but needed 114 pitches.
Both aces have been dominant this postseason, with Noland posting a 1.27 ERA in 21 1/3 innings as a starter against three red-hot offenses and DeLucia posting a 2.33 ERA with 31 strikeouts and just three walks in 19 1/3 innings.
How long each pitcher lasts Thursday afternoon remains to be seen.
There have only been a handful of instances when Noland pitched on short rest and most of them were just one day less than normal because of a Thursday-Saturday series. He’s been phenomenal in those situations, with a 2.03 ERA and 0.90 WHIP in 26 1/3 innings, but blew a save in his lone relief appearance this season against Oklahoma State with just one day of rest.
With more experience as a reliever, DeLucia has made several appearances on short rest. His outings haven’t had as much success. In an identical 26 1/3 innings, he has a 5.74 ERA and 1.76 WHIP. However, DeLucia did have a fantastic 7 2/3-inning start against South Carolina on three days rest, but that was after a 12-pitch relief outing on a weekend he threw 58 total pitches.
“The game usually tells you what to do,” Van Horn said. “We'll see what we see from him and see what kind of stuff he has, see what type of swings they're taking, and we'll go to the next guy.”
It’s also worth noting that both teams will be playing 18 hours after a dramatic ninth-inning finish that nearly saw Arkansas squander a 3-1 lead.
Ole Miss loaded the bases with no outs, but Zack Morris limited the damage to just one run and earned the biggest save of the season for the Razorbacks.
“Rather than look at what happened tonight, I think the thing is to flush this and to look forward to tomorrow with an opportunity to win and stay alive and be one of the last two teams competing for a national championship,” Bianco said. “So rather than woe is us, how about looking at what a great opportunity we have tomorrow?”
Van Horn seemed to be dismissive of any momentum talk following the game, acknowledging that the way it ended won’t carry over to Thursday’s showdown.
“I think at this time of the year, it's just about winning games and hanging in there,” Van Horn said. “If we would have done this maybe a month and a half ago, two months ago, I would have told you it's really going to help our confidence moving forward, but at this time of the year, I think the team's really confident and pretty loose.”
For Ole Miss, the winner-take-all matchup is just another must-win game in what has been a two-month stretch of must-win games that helped it sneak into the NCAA Tournament as one of the last four teams in.
“I can't promise you the outcome of tomorrow's game, but I can guarantee you we're not scared, we're not going to back down,” Ole Miss second baseman Peyton Chatagnier said. “This is nothing new to us.”
First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT and the game will be televised on ESPN2.