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 — As he has throughout the season, Casey Opitz delivered for Arkansas in a clutch spot Saturday night.
Despite having the worst batting average in either starting lineup, he hit the two-run single that broke a scoreless tie and propelled the Razorbacks to a 3-1 win over TCU at Baum-Walker Stadium.
It was their first hit with the bases loaded since the LSU series, snapping an 0-for-9 stretch, and helps put Arkansas in the driver’s seat at the Fayetteville Regional.
For five innings, the duel between Nick Lodolo and Isaiah Campbell lived up to the hype.
A projected top-10 pick and expected to be the first pitcher off the board in next week’s MLB Draft, Lodolo was sharp early on, giving up just a couple of hits in the first three innings.
However, the 6-foot-6 left-hander started losing control in the fourth. He issued three walks and hit a batter with a pitch, but a base running mistake by Matt Goodheart led to a double play and Arkansas left the bases loaded when Jacob Nesbit looked at strike three.
The Razorbacks threatened again in the fifth with a one-out double by Trevor Ezell and two-out walk by Goodheart, but Lodolo again escaped unscathed with a strikeout of Dominic Fletcher.
Heston Kjerstad’s leadoff single in the sixth finally chased the TCU ace after 93 pitches. Arkansas took advantage of the pitching change and an ensuing error that put runners on first and second with no outs.
Even after Christian Franklin failed to get down a sacrifice bunt, Nesbit hit a single to load the bases. It was a situation that has been Arkansas’ kryptonite the last few weeks, but Opitz’s single just got by TCU’s diving shortstop.
Although the Arkansas catcher came into the game with a .240 batting average, he’s had a knack for coming up with a hit in big spots. He has walk-off hits against Missouri and Tennessee, plus a game-winning hit at Vanderbilt.
Ezell followed with an RBI double into the right field corner to make it 3-0, which was plenty of run support for Arkansas’ ace.
TCU managed just three base runners in the first six innings before finally scratching across a run against Campbell. He gave up a one-out double to Austin Henry, who moved to third on a bloop single by Johnny Rizer and scored on Zach Humphreys’ sacrifice fly.
That was the only blemish on Campbell’s line, as he gave up one earned run on four hits and one walk while striking out eight. His eight innings and 108 pitches matched career highs set last year against Kentucky. With the win, he is now 11-1 with a 2.27 ERA.
Lodolo gave up just one unearned run on four hits and struck out six in five innings, but walked four and was charged with the loss.
Clinging to a 3-1 lead, the Razorbacks turned to closer Matt Cronin, who retired the Horned Frogs in order for his 12th save of the season.
Arkansas needs just one more win to advance to the super regionals. It will play the winner of Sunday’s Central Connecticut-TCU elimination game, which begins at 2 p.m. The regional final is later in the day, with first pitch scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday.
Both games will definitely be streamed on ESPN3.com, but could potentially be picked up by a network. That won’t be announced until early Sunday morning.
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