NCAA Fayetteville Regional report

Efficient Noland impresses

Arkansas starter Connor Noland delivers to the plate Friday, May 31, 2019, during the first inning of the Razorbacks' 11-5 win over Central Connecticut at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Freshman Connor Noland provided the No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks an efficient 5 1/3 innings and earned the win in the Hogs' 11-5 victory over Central Connecticut State in Friday's NCAA Fayetteville Regional opener.

The right-hander threw 58 pitches and allowed 2 runs, 1 earned, on 2 hits and no walks to improve to 3-4. Noland's streak of 25 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run at Baum-Walker Stadium came to an end when the Blue Devils scored in the fourth inning to cut their deficit to 2-1.

Noland got tabbed for the start when Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn and pitching coach Matt Hobbs decided to have ace Isaiah Campbell (10-1, 2.37 ERA) ready for today's second game.

"I was just attacking the zone today, throwing strikes, filling it up, keeping them off-balance with off-speeds," Noland said. "I think that's just really been the key for me having a successful outing, just keeping them off-balance and keeping them guessing throughout the outing."

Van Horn said Noland could be available Sunday or Monday based on his low pitch count in the opener.

Noland had allowed just one run, unearned, in his past four appearances at Baum-Walker Stadium. The Greenwood native threw two scoreless innings in a win against the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 7 2/3 scoreless innings in a win against No. 2 Mississippi State, 7 innings with the one unearned run in a no-decision versus Tennessee, and 5 1/3 scoreless innings in a no-decision against LSU in his past four home outings.

"I thought it started with Connor coming out and just throwing a lot of strikes," Van Horn said to lead off his news conference Friday. "He got through the first couple of innings with probably less than 20 pitches.

"He had a lot of ground balls. When he's getting ground balls, he's got the two-seamer sinking and running. He pitches to contact, and that's what we wanted him to do."

Hot at home

Arkansas has scored double-digit runs in five of its past seven home games -- all against NCAA Tournament teams.

The Razorbacks scored 11 and 15 runs before a 4-3 extra-inning win to sweep Tennessee in April.

Arkansas scored 14 and 11 runs in the first two games of its final home series against LSU last month prior to a 3-2 loss in the finale.

The Razorbacks are averaging 8.1 runs per game at Baum-Walker Stadium this season. Arkansas has scored 10 or more runs in 16 of 33 home games.

Dinger distances

Heston Kjerstad's fourth-inning home run against Central Connecticut State starter Brandon Fox was estimated at 426 feet.

The shot left the park between the big batter's eye and the scoreboard through the pines and into the pond beyond the wall in right-center field.

Trevor Ezell's home run in the eighth inning to left field was estimated at 402 feet, and it cleared the seats in the Hog Pen.

Fire away

The first run of the California-TCU game was scored on a throwing error by Bears catcher Korey Lee.

The Horned Frogs had runners on first and second with one out when pitcher Jared Horn delivered a 3-2 pitch to Austin Henry. The second baseman swung through the pitch as TCU had a double steal in motion. Lee came up firing to third base, but his throw sailed about 4 feet over the head of Quentin Selma, allowing Hunter Wolfe to scurry home.

Bowens' bomb

CCSU slugger TT Bowens showed his pop with a three-run home run in the eighth inning, his fifth in only 30 games.

Bowens missed a big chunk of the season while recovering from his second knee surgery in a year. Bowens went 1 for 3, and his average dipped slightly to .385 while driving in all five runs for the Blue Devils.

"Him coming back halfway through the year changed our team," Coach Charlie Hickey said. "He does what he's capable of doing, and that's part of the reason why we're here. He has a presence in the middle of our order to -- with one swing -- get us three runs."

Fletcher impresses

CCSU Coach Charlie Hickey was impressed by Razorbacks center fielder Dominic Fletcher, a two-time member of the SEC all-defensive team.

"I thought we hit some balls hard," Hickey said. "Their center fielder made some balls look awfully easy that I thought were a little more difficult to catch."

Nice crowd

CCSU played in front of more fans Friday (9,858) at Baum-Walker Stadium than in 20 home dates (2,779).

"It's definitely an amazing experience," Blue Devils first baseman TT Bowens said. "Being at a smaller Northeast school and being able to earn the privilege of coming down and competing with these teams, it's definitely a very good experience, being able to play in this atmosphere.

"Those fans were amazing ... all screaming and yelling the whole game. You can never re-create that feeling."

New leaders

Heston Kjerstad and Dominic Fletcher moved to the top of the Arkansas leaderboard in a couple of offensive categories with their production in the opener.

Fletcher's single in the fifth inning, which drove in Matt Goodheart with the Razorbacks' fifth run of the day, gave him 54 RBI, one more than shortstop Casey Martin.

Kjerstad hit a home run over the right-field wall to lead off the Arkansas fourth against Brandon Fox, his 15th of the year to tie Martin.

Martin's slump

Arkansas shortstop Casey Martin's slump at the plate stretched to 0 for 16 after he went hitless in five at-bats in the regional opener.

Martin's last hit was a fifth-inning single during the final game of the Razorbacks' 6-1 loss in their season finale at Texas A&M on May 18. He went 0 for 10 in the SEC Tournament with 2 walks and 2 runs scored.

Martin saw 15 pitches, 12 of them strikes, in his five plate appearances Friday. He had two first-pitch outs on a ground ball to third base and a pop-up to first base. Martin also grounded out to shortstop, flied out to left field and struck out swinging.

Pitching plan

CCSU Coach Charlie Hickey said he planned to start right-hander Tom Curtin in today's noon elimination game with a plan of attack behind him.

The senior Curtin is 5-3 with a 3.96 ERA.

"Tomorrow I feel we have Tom Curtin, Mike Appel (6-0, 2.31), and Jared Gallagher (3-0, 1.72) lined up to go," Hickey said. "If we need more than that, then we're going to have difficulty winning."

Appel has 3 saves, while Gallagher has 9 saves and a 0.899 WHIP.

Defensive lapses

The Razorbacks committed three errors in the sixth inning as CCSU put together a one-run inning and knocked starter Connor Noland out of the game.

The trouble started early in the frame, when shortstop Casey Martin threw wildly to first base, allowing nine-hole batter Matt Bertochi to reach to open the inning. Martin got another chance on Chandler Debrosse's grounder over the mound, and he threw low to Trevor Ezell, who bobbled the catch and was charged with an error. On a very similar play, Martin threw out Sam Loda for the first out of the inning as Noland's final batter.

TT Bowens greeted Kevin Kopps with a ground ball to shortstop that Martin could not get out of his glove for the third error of the inning, allowing Bertochi to score. Kopps struck out the next two batters to escape without further damage.

Blue Devil blues

CCSU fell to 0-11 all-time in NCAA Tournament games.

The Blue Devils' average margin of loss in their postseason games is 8.6 runs. They came closest to a regional win two years ago in a 6-5 loss to Dallas Baptist in the Fort Worth Regional.

150th game

Arkansas played its 150th NCAA Tournament game Friday.

The Razorbacks improved to 84-66 in postseason games, including 24-12 in Fayetteville and 53-35 under 17th-year head Coach Dave Van Horn. Arkansas is 58-41 all-time in the regional round.

Sports on 06/01/2019