HawgBeat's coverage of the Razorbacks' Road to Redemption in Omaha is brought to you by Arkansas Oral Surgery, which has offices located in Conway and Russellville.
FAYETTEVILLE — Just as his predecessor did time and time again last year, Isaiah Campbell took his game to another level and outshined a highly regarded opposing pitcher Saturday night.
The right-hander turned in his best performance of the season to help the Razorbacks beat projected top-10 pick Nick Lodolo and TCU 3-1 at Baum-Walker Stadium, putting them in control of the Fayetteville Regional.
Allowing only one earned run on four hits and one walk in eight innings, it was an outing reminiscent of Blaine Knight in 2018, when he went head-to-head with the likes of Casey Mize, Brady Singer and Ryan Rolison and always came out on top.
No one had a better view of Campbell’s dominance than catcher Casey Opitz, who has been behind the plate for all 16 of his starts this season.
“He’s been outstanding all year, but tonight you could kind of tell it was something different,” Opitz said. “Tonight was probably the best I’ve seen him keep control of his stuff throughout the whole game.”
With Lodolo, TCU’s 6-foot-6 left-hander, flashing 97 and 98 miles per hour on the scoreboard radar gun and keeping the Razorbacks off balance, Campbell shouldered a lot of pressure in the early innings.
There were three total base runners - two for Arkansas and one for TCU - through the third and neither starter had thrown more than 40 pitches. Even though the Razorbacks finally started to get Lodolo’s pitch count up, it was still scoreless after five.
“After each inning, we were saying, ‘That’s round one, that’s round two,’ just like it was a fight,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “Who was going to make a mistake or who was going to boot a ball? Both pitchers did a great job.”
Arkansas broke through with a three-run sixth inning and that was more than enough run support for Campbell. He worked around a one-out walk in the next half inning to keep the momentum on his side.
It wasn’t until the seventh that he ran into some trouble. Austin Henry ripped a double down the left field line, moved to third on Johnny Rizer’s bloop single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Zach Humphreys, but that was it for the Horned Frogs.
“He showed why he’s one of the best pitchers in the country,” Humphreys said. “You didn’t want to get behind when he was pitching. We were up there swinging, but he had good stuff, he worked both sides of the plate and it was not a fun night to hit against him.”
Sitting at 95 pitches after that inning, Van Horn said he and pitching coach Matt Hobbs were close to taking him out of the game and turning it over to the bullpen. Relievers Cody Scroggins and Jacob Kostyshock were fresh, plus closer Matt Cronin could always be stretched longer than an inning if needed.
That conversation ended when Campbell heard what they were discussing.
“Coach Hobbs and I, as a matter of fact, were down there talking about it kind of at our end (of the dugout),” Van Horn said. “Do we leave him in? Do we bring so-and-so in? Next thing you know, Isaiah came around the corner and said, ‘I’m good.’ And we just looked at each other and said, ‘Okay, we’re going to leave him in.’”
The announced crowd of 10,967 at Baum-Walker Stadium roared when he came out of the dugout for the eighth, giving him a jolt of adrenaline. He responded by striking out the first two batters - giving him eight for the game - and getting leadoff man Josh Watson to fly out to left on his 108th pitch of the night.
It matched last year’s Kentucky game for the longest outing of Campbell’s career in terms of innings and pitch count, validating Van Horn’s strategy of not overextending him throughout the regular season.
Several times, the veteran coach removed his ace when he seemingly still had gas in the tank. Just last week at the SEC Tournament, Campbell threw only 71 pitches in five scoreless innings against No. 4 nationally seed Georgia.
“Whenever you can save some pitches or save innings earlier in the season, it’s going to help you later in the season,” Campbell said. “I felt really fresh in that eighth inning, so those earlier games this year really helped tonight.”
The performance moved him to 11-1 on the season, while also improving all of his other statistics: 2.27 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 5.7 strikeout-to-walk ratio, 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings, 1.7 walks per nine innings, .207 opponent batting average and 6.4 innings per start.
Aside from the loss column, all of those are even better than Knight’s numbers through the NCAA Regional last season: 11-0, 2.74 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 4.0 strikeout-to-walk ratio, 8.3 strikeouts per nine innings, 2.1 walks per nine innings, .224 opponent batting average and 6.0 innings per start.
“He throws with great angle to the baseball,” TCU head coach Jim Schlossnagle said about Campbell. “Obviously you are trying to see his fastball up, stay on the fastball.
“That is what we were preaching and I think every single hitter in the game got a fastball to hit, but it is a lot easier said than done when he starts sticking the curveball and slider, multiple pitches.”
Saturday was a continuation of what has been one of the most remarkable turnarounds from one year to the next in Arkansas history, regardless of the sport.
As a redshirt sophomore last season, Campbell went 5-7 with a 4.26 ERA and averaged less than four innings per start. He also averaged two more walks per nine innings and opponents hit 42 points higher against him than this year.
“I really just learned from all of the mistakes I made last year and the up-and-down season I had,” Campbell said. “Once Omaha was done last year, I just focused on this year and really got my mental focus better.”
There were times Campbell showed signs of what he was capable of doing, such as retiring the first 14 batters he faced against Florida at the College World Series, but he could also unravel quickly. In last year’s regional, he failed to record an out against Dallas Baptist.
Van Horn said he’s always known Campbell had the talent, but he has finally put it all together and learned how to battle through jams.
“We’d see a little bit of what you saw tonight here and there…but every week (this year) giving us a good start, it’s been fun to watch,” Van Horn said. “Because of the consistency, he’s made the biggest jump that I’ve seen.”
The biggest key to Campbell’s transformation has been his off-speed development, as he now consistently throws his slider, curveball and splitter for strikes.
Complement those pitches with a fastball that gets into the mid-90s, he is a nightmare for opponents and a dream for big league scouts.
“You could tell when we started taking fastballs for strike three, that is telling you that his off-speed pitches are in the dome of our hitters,” Schlossnagle said. “He is awesome. Thank goodness he can’t pitch again this weekend.”
