Confident TCU expects CWS atmosphere Saturday at Arkansas

Arkansas fans are shown during an NCAA regional game against Central Connecticut on Friday, May 31, 2019, in Fayetteville.

One of the nation’s best teams and two of the nation’s best pitchers will be on display Saturday night at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Arkansas (42-17) will face TCU (33-26) in a 6 p.m. winner’s bracket game that will feature a marquee pitching matchup between junior aces - Razorback right hander Isaiah Campbell (10-1, 2.38 ERA) and Horned Frogs left hander Nick Lodolo (6-5, 2.48).

Both are top 50 prospects, according to MLB.com, in the upcoming three-day draft that begins Monday.

“This is why you play and why you lift at 6:30 in the morning. This is why you put all the time in to play in atmospheres like this,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said following the Horned Frogs' 13-2 victory over California on Friday. “Certainly it is going to be rocking here, but we are starting a pretty good little lefty.

“We’ll see how it goes and I am excited. I haven’t been here since 1994 so today was my first game in this ballpark and I am excited about tomorrow. This is going to be fun. It’s College World Series stuff.”

Lodolo, ranked as the eighth-best prospect by MLB.com, has 125 strikeouts in 98 innings and only 21 walks.

He was held back on Friday in hopes TCU (33-26) could advance without him.

“As soon as we got in, we felt like no disrespect to Cal, but we felt like our best chance to beat the number one seed in this tournament was with our best pitcher,” Schlossnagle said. “I mean I started a guy (Brandon Williamson) that is going to go in the second or third round of the draft and is a 6-6 lefty with a fastball up to 94 with a good change up.

“We didn’t come here to win a ballgame, we came here to win to try and win this tournament. We felt like that was our best chance.”

Campbell, ranked 45th by MLB.com, has fanned 100 in 95 innings with just 18 walks.

“We respect our opponent and we are going to see an awesome pitcher tomorrow,” Schlossnagle said. “I know the SEC is awesome and probably has more depth than the Big 12, but we have seen some really good pitchers in the Big 12.

“If he (Campbell) executes pitches, it is going to be a tough night, but if he doesn’t, hopefully we will get some good swings on it.”

Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn is confident in his guy.

“Obviously he has been our top pitcher all year,” Van Horn said. “He has been real consistent with six-plus innings every time we give him the ball, so I feel pretty good about it.”

TCU defeated No. 2 Vanderbilt 10-1 in a neutral-site game in Scottsdale, Ariz., early in the season, but the Horned Frogs finished below expectations and were only 11-13 in Big 12 games.

Hunter Wolfe, who was 3-for-5 with 4 RBI against Cal, is one of many Horned Frogs that have missed time this year due to injuries.

“We have had pretty good offense all year, it’s just not the offense we thought we would have to start the season at the end of the fall,” Schlossnagle said. “We were missing Hunter, who if he had been healthy all year could have stole upward of 30 or 40 bases. Porter Brown could have been a freshman All-American, but we out for the season after 15 games.”

Wolfe expects a great atmosphere on Saturday.

“They are obviously one of the more perennial programs in the country so we know that we are going to be facing a good team and I know this place is going to be rocking,” Wolfe said, “but we are going to be up to the task.”

That sentiment was echoed by Schlossnagle.

“A confident player is a dangerous player and we are playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Schlossnagle said.

“Excited about the win for sure. Super proud of the way our guys competed. I thought Brandon did a great job. Wish we could have scored a little bit more early because I felt like with their club, the power they have in the middle of the order that there were just one swing away from taking the lead.

“But Brandon made some nice pitches, we made a couple of nice plays, and I thought just as he has the whole season, Chuck (King) changed the pace of the game and got momentum, even though we had a lead, got back on our side and we got some big hits with Hunter at the forefront of that.”