Kjerstad, Bonfield propel Hogs to CWS-opening win
OMAHA, Neb. – Heston Kjerstad wasn’t alive when Arkansas and Texas were rivals in the Southwest Conference, but you wouldn’t have known it watching the fifth inning Sunday at the College World Series.
The star freshman ran over Longhorns first baseman Jake McKenzie while getting back to first base after reaching on a fielder’s choice and three pitches later, Luke Bonfield hit a two-run home run to give the Razorbacks a lead they wouldn’t relinquish in an 11-5 win Sunday.
Texas thought Kjerstad made a move to second base after running through the bag, so it tried to throw behind him and tag him out. McKenzie was standing on the bag and lowered his shoulder, so the 6-foot-3, 190-pound Kjerstad knocked him over to get back.
Even though notorious umpire Perry Costello eventually ruled he didn’t offer toward second, Kjerstad said he hustled back because he didn’t want to take a chance. It was a clean play, but that didn’t keep tempers from flaring on Texas’ side.
“Going into first, I was going full speed and he was on the backside of the bag,” Kjerstad said. “I tried to brace myself going into first on him, and then he ended up falling over.”
Kjerstad prevented a double play by running hard on the play, extending the sixth inning long enough for Bonfield to send a 1-1 pitch into the leftfield bleachers for the go-ahead home run. It was the first ball to leave TD Ameritrade Park this College World Series, which began with two games Saturday.
“He left a sinker up and I put a good swing on it and wasn’t quite sure it was going out,” Bonfield said. “I knew I hit it well, but you never know with this stadium and with the wind and everything.”
That swing propelled the Razorbacks into the winner’s bracket in Omaha, where they will play Texas Tech – which beat Florida 6-3 in Sunday’s nightcap – at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The game will be televised on ESPN.
Junior left-hander Kacey Murphy (8-5, 3.12 ERA) will get the start for Arkansas.
“We just have to stay aggressive and we can’t relax after the 1-0 start,” Murphy said. “We know just because we got a win here, doesn’t mean it’s close to over.”
Long Delay
Back in March, Arkansas played a doubleheader against Kent State. The Razorbacks won the first game 7-2, but then got embarrassed 10-4 for one of their four losses at Baum Stadium this season.
Head coach Dave Van Horn later blamed the loss on his team filling up on sandwiches between the games and not being as focused. When Arkansas had a doubleheader against Kentucky the next weekend, he told the players they’d only get a banana and Snickers bar and they responded by sweeping those games 14-2 and 16-9.
As soon as they realized there would be a long weather delay – with lightning and storms in the area – the Razorbacks treated Sunday’s game in a similar manner.
“We’re really superstitious about eating too much,” Carson Shaddy said. “We always say we just want to eat a Snickers bar and that’s it.”
Despite the sun shining for a while near the end of it, the delay lasted two hours and 49 minutes. In addition to eating a snack, Arkansas’ players also took measures to stay loose so they wouldn’t skip a beat when play finally resumed at 6:16 p.m.
“Sometimes with rain delays, you can get a little lethargic after them,” Bonfield said. “We kind of stayed loose, didn’t eat a ton and took some swings in the cages down there and came out.”
Big Inning
Already with two runs in the inning and a 5-2 lead, the Razorbacks had the bases loaded with no outs and the heart of their lineup coming to the plate when the game went into a delay.
“We had a three-run lead; worst case for us I wanted two of those,” Van Horn said. “I wanted to get at least two more runs there.”
Both of the runs Arkansas scored before the delay came on bases-loaded walks to Jax Biggers and Eric Cole. It was much more explosive when play resumed, with freshman Casey Martin driving in a run with the first pitch he saw.
“I was going to take, but decided not to; I don’t know why,” Martin said. “I was actually thinking in my head before I went up to bat that it’d be nice to just get a blooper or something. Sure enough, next swing I got a blooper and we scored some runs.”
Two pitches later, Kjerstad knocked in a pair with a single of his own. The hit – his third of the game – gave him 57 RBIs on the season, breaking Jeff King’s UA freshman record set in 1984. He now owns six different freshman records, with Martin right on his heels in several categories.
“Those two guys are incredible,” Shaddy said. “I’ve said it before. There’s no two other freshmen that could do that in the country. For them to come out with that mature approach and be so focused in their first two at bats, and they were huge at bats with no body out, and getting two straight hits, that’s incredible.”
Those two hits opened the floodgates for Arkansas. Bonfield loaded the bases again by reaching on a hit by pitch, Dominic Fletcher hit a run-run single and Shaddy capped off with an RBI single.
When it was all set and done, the Razorbacks’ first 10 batters reached base without record an out. Half of them reached before the delay and half reached after, with none of the six hits going for extra bases.
“Once Casey Martin hit that leadoff hit after the rain delay, everything just kind of snowballed on them and we got a ton more momentum,” Bonfield said. “We just never let up on the gas.”
Texas tried to avoid digging itself in such a large hole by using expected Game 2 starter Chase Shugart out of the bullpen following the delay.
Head coach David Pierce said the idea was to try to limit the bases-loaded, no-out situation and keep the game within striking distance. Instead, his pitchers – seven total – failed to do so.
“You just can’t afford to pitch behind against Arkansas and that’s what happened when we got unraveled,” Pierce said. “Either we pitched behind or we tried to get strike one and threw white-on-white instead of a quality pitch.”
Containing Clemens
Texas All-American second baseman Kody Clemens came into Sunday’s game as arguably the hottest hitter in the country, with 11 home runs in his last 15 games.
That wasn’t the case against Arkansas, though, as he went just 1 for 5 with two strikeouts. He faced four different Razorbacks and his lone hit was a single.
“I thought they did a really good job with him,” Van Horn said. “He’s been on fire, obviously, hitting long balls, doing everything.”
Knight’s Outing
In what has become a common occurrence, Blaine Knight didn’t have his best stuff but still found a way to be effective.
The Arkansas ace scattered four hits and one walk while allowing two earned runs and striking out four in five innings. He didn’t come out to pitch in the sixth, despite having thrown only 81 pitches.
A leadoff triple by Tate Shaw in the third inning led to Knight’s first run and the Longhorns used some small ball to turn a leadoff hit into a run in the fifth. Each time, they had multiple runners on base but scored only once.
“They took some good swings at him, but he had just enough to get them out,” Van Horn said. “He worked his way out of a jam or two and just didn’t give up that big inning.”
By going five innings and leaving with a lead, Knight was the pitcher of record for Arkansas and earned his 13th victory. That ties a UA single-season record held by Rich Erwin (1979) and Steve Krueger (1980).
“I just chalk it up as another win for the team,” Knight said. “I’m just going to do what I can the next outing to get another win for this team and keep going.”
Saving the Bullpen
In the sixth inning, Van Horn turned to Barrett Loseke, who gave up a leadoff single to Clemens before retiring the next three batters.
Although the lengthy delay interrupted his performance, the right-hander stayed loose by throwing every 15 minutes and actually recorded the first two outs of the sixth inning more than three hours after originally coming into the game.
However, he quickly lost his command and issued a four-pitch walk to David Hamilton. The eight-spot Arkansas’ offense put up in the sixth inning allowed Van Horn to save the other two parts of the “three-headed dragon” – Jake Reindl and Matt Cronin.
Instead, Kole Ramage, Bryce Bonnin and Cody Scroggins combined to throw the final 2 1/3 innings. They allowed three earned runs on three hits and four walks to make the score appear closer than it actually was.
Considering he threw only 38 pitches and the next game isn’t until Tuesday, Loseke could also be available out of the bullpen against Texas Tech – which he threw 4 2/3 perfect innings against during the regular season. Last weekend, made two appearances with a day in between them after throwing 49 pitches in Game 1 of the super regional.
Other Tidbits
-The announced attendance for the Sunday afternoon game between Arkansas and Texas was 23,034. That is the bigger than any crowd either of those teams has played in front of before, but the Razorbacks are used to playing with a lot of people in the stands. “I think being in the atmosphere that we have at Baum Stadium definitely has an impact being around all of these fans,” Martin said. “A lot of people kind of choke up, but we play in front of 10, 11 thousand people every game. … I think that really, honestly, helped us get ready for today.”
-Texas head coach David Pierce wore jersey No. 16 instead of his usual No. 22 as a nod to legendary coach Augie Garrido, who passed away this March. He made the decision to do so earlier in the season if the Longhorns made it to Omaha and equipment manager Vince Alcazar helped make it happen. “He’s a huge piece of this team,” Pierce said. “I know Augie would not want to be the center of attention and I think he would probably appreciate the way we handled it.”
-Two fans were taken out of the stadium in handcuffs after running onto the field near the end of the weather delay, with both being taken down by the grounds crew. The first was wearing an Arkansas shirt and got tackled hard. The second was slammed against the outfield wall before getting slung to the ground. He was shirtless, but flashed a hook’em horns before the police put him in handcuffs.
