Dave Van Horn explains decision to pull Zach Root early in LSU game
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Arkansas baseball fell to LSU 4-1 on Saturday evening, putting the Razorbacks on the brink of elimination from the College World Series.
In a game that was billed as an elite pitching matchup between Zach Root and Kade Anderson, only Anderson had the opportunity to pitch deep into the game. After Root got into some early trouble, Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn pulled him in favor of Gabe Gaeckle after just 1.2 innings of work.
After the game, Van Horn was asked about the decision to lift Root in the second inning.
“To me, it was a hard decision. I had to make a decision. Anderson looked really good. Seems like we weren’t getting good swings off him. We were already down three runs. They had, I think, Frey coming up, who’s hitting over .400 against left-handers. And I just didn’t feel like we could let them score anymore. I had a great pitcher in the bullpen who was hot. We got him up because we saw what we saw — two walks, a hit-by pitch, a hit or two — and the game was about to get out of hand.
“Yeah, it’s early, but the wind’s blowing in. It’s going to be tough to hit it over anybody’s head. Scoring a lot of runs against Anderson to me wasn’t something that was going to happen. I hated to do it, but I just felt like it was the right decision. And I’ll stand by it. It was the right decision.”
The move paid off to some extent — Gaeckle allowed just 1 run over 6 innings of work out of the bullpen, striking out 10. The Razorbacks were unable to mount a comeback offensively against Anderson — who went 7 innings — or the LSU bullpen, however.
Arkansas now must win 4 consecutive games in order to reach the College World Series final. If LSU wins its game against UCLA on Monday, the Razorbacks would need to beat LSU twice in the Bracket 2 championship in order to advance to the final. With Root only throwing 38 pitches on Saturday, it’s possible he’ll be available sooner rather than later should Arkansas be able to advance in this tournament.
First, Arkansas will be tasked with facing Murray State on Monday afternoon in an elimination game.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
