College World Series report

Big splash from SEC in Omaha

Florida pitcher Brady Singer throws against Arkansas in the first inning of an NCAA College World Series baseball game in Omaha, Neb., Friday, June 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

OMAHA, Neb. -- The SEC put three of four teams into the CWS semifinals and will be guaranteed a team in the finals.

The SEC could have both participants in the finals for the second consecutive year. Florida downed LSU last year in a two-game sweep by scores of 4-3 and 6-1 for its first national championship.

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The winner of Friday night's Arkansas-Florida game will represent Bracket 2, while Mississippi State must beat Oregon State today to give the SEC a second team.

The bracket seemed to discourage multiple SEC teams from making runs to the finals, as the league's top four teams, No. 1 seed Florida, No. 4 Ole Miss, No. 5 Arkansas and No. 8 Georgia would all have been in the same bracket at Omaha in they had all advanced.

8 Ks for Campbell

Arkansas right-hander Isaiah Campbell gave the Razorbacks 5 1/3 innings Friday, his longest outing since throwing 5 2/3 innings at Mississippi State on April 21. Campbell left with eight strikeouts, the most for an Arkansas pitcher at the College World Series.

He gave way to Jake Reindl after 86 pitches, allowing 2 runs on 2 hits and no walks.

Campbell cruised through the first four innings. The 6-4 sophomore struck out six Gators his first time through the order and carried a no-hitter through two outs in the fifth inning, when Austin Langworthy hit a single over shortstop Jax Biggers' head.

Campbell hit Blake Reese with his next pitch, and had Brady Smith at 2-2 before allowing an RBI single to right field. Campbell was ahead of ninth-place hitter Nick Horvath before he unleashed a wild pitch, allowing Reese to score from third. Campbell rallied to strike out Horvath, tying a career high with his eighth strikeout to finish the fifth.

Singer stats

Arkansas chased Florida ace Brady Singer after 5 innings, with the first-round pick by the Kansas City Royals allowing 4 runs on 7 hits and 1 walk and striking out 2 on 89 pitches.

Singer lowered his career ERA against the Razorbacks to 11.93 and his batting average allowed to .364 after entering the game with sketchy stats against the Hogs.

Singer had an 0-2 record with a 14.46 ERA and a 2.25 WHIP, a calculation of how many hits and walks allowed per innings pitched, in his first three appearances against the Razorbacks.

Arkansas ace Blaine Knight out-dueled him in a 6-3 game on March 23 in Gainesville, Fla., as Singer picked up his first loss of the year, allowing a season-high 6 earned runs on 7 hits and 2 walks in 7 innings.

Arkansas torched him for 8 earned runs on 7 hits and 2 walks in 1-plus innings in a 16-0 rout in the SEC Tournament in 2017.

Gator backs

The Florida Gators have been a tough out with their backs against the wall and facing elimination the last two years in the postseason. The No. 1 Gators had won their last seven games in the NCAA Tournament when facing elimination heading into Friday's late game against Arkansas.

Run fun

Through the first 11 games of the College World Series, the teams had combined for 137 runs, breaking the record for runs scored at TD Ameritrade Park.

The previous record had been 134 runs in 2015. The average runs per game entering the Arkansas-Florida night game was 12.5 runs per game.

Kwan gone

Oregon State outfielder Steven Kwan, a .360 hitter with 3 triples and 14 stolen bases, has missed the last couple of games while recovering from a hamstring problem.

His replacement, Jack Anderson had a ball pass over his glove and hit his leg on what was ruled an RBI double for a Mississippi State run in the first inning.

"The ball goes off Jack's knee and he said, 'Coach, the ball hit my knee,'" Coach Pat Casey said. "I said, 'I know, where's your glove? I get it, you haven't played center field, but let's get the glove in front of the knee.'"

Kwan is still questionable for today's bracket final.

50 taters

Florida's JJ Schwarz hit a milestone home run Thursday, his first since returning from broken bone in his hand suffered in the regular season ending series at Mississippi State, and his first in 16 games at the College World Series.

Schwarz's two-run shot was the 50th of his career. The homer in the sixth inning gave Florida a 5-0 lead in its 9-6 victory over Texas Tech.

Schwarz is the fourth Gator to hit the 50-home run plateau, following Matt LaPorta (74), Preston Tucker (57) and Brad Wilkerson (55).

HR chase

JJ Schwarz's home run Thursday was the 100th of the season for Florida, the most among the remaining teams in college baseball. Arkansas was second entering Friday's late game with 97.

Nobody's catching Tennessee Tech, which hit 135 in 65 games to lead Division I. Florida is next, followed by Clemson (98) and the Razorbacks.

Nice visit

The visiting team won eight of the first 10 games at the College World Series, including seven in a row heading into the semifinals.

Mississippi State won the second game of the series as the home team, 1-0 over Washington, then Arkansas downed Texas 11-5 in the home dugout in Game 3. After that, the visitors took seven consecutive games until Oregon State routed Mississippi State 12-2 on Friday.

Weird DPs

Mississippi State turned three non-routine double plays in its 12-2 loss to Oregon State.

With the score tied 1-1 in the first inning, Oregon State had runners at first and third when catcher Adley Rutschman grounded sharply to pitcher Jacob Billingsley. Cadyn Grenier, who was on third, had broken for home and got caught in a run-down. As Grenier tried to extend the run-down, Trevor Larnach, rounded second and got caught in a quandary between the bases. Third baseman Justin Foscue put the tag on Grenier, then fired to second base, where Larnach was retreating, as the Bulldogs pulled off a rare 1-2-5-4 double play.

Oregon State also lined into a 6-3 double play and a runner's interference on a 5-4-3 double play.

Freak accident

Mississippi State left-hander Ethan Small (5-3, 2.89 ERA), who is scheduled to start today's elimination game, was hit by a batted ball during batting practice Friday afternoon on his right arm.

"Yeah, it's unbelievable," Mississippi State Coach Gary Henderson said. "I don't even know what to say, other than the kids are bulletproof. ... 'Stay behind the screen,' they've heard that ad nauseam from me. But freak accidents happen and it hit him and we're planning on him pitching tomorrow."

Beaver arms

Oregon State Coach Pat Casey has narrowed down his starting pitcher for today's bracket final to either Christian Chamberlain (3-0, 4.00) or Grant Gambrell (5-1, 4.40).

"We talked about that this morning in our meeting," Casey said when asked who he had targeted. "And we said let's not talk about it. Seriously, if we win, we'll talk about it.

"Obviously we're kind of up against it a little bit here, so we might have to piece it together just to get through it."

Around the horn

• The Arkansas fans beat Florida fans in a pizza delivery contest in the middle of the fifth inning.

• Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek and men's basketball Coach Mike Anderson and his wife Marcheita were in attendance at a suite behind home plate.

• Florida is at the College World Series for the fourth consecutive year, making the Gators the fifth team to accomplish that feat since the tournament expanded to 64 teams.

• Florida's 9-6 victory over Texas Tech in Thursday's elimination game came on the same date two years ago when the Red Raiders eliminated Florida 3-2 at the CWS.

• Arkansas scored in the first inning for the fourth consecutive game Friday against Florida.

Sports on 06/23/2018