Hogs' season comes to end with another loss to TCU

Arkansas Monday, June 5, 2023, during the inning of the Razorbacks’ 12-4 loss to Texas Christian in the championship series of the NCAA Fayetteville Regional at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE — Late Sunday night after the Arkansas baseball team beat Santa Clara in an elimination game in the NCAA Fayetteville Regional, Coach Dave Van Horn put the task ahead of his Razorbacks in perspective.

“I’ve been a part of some crazy days,” Van Horn said. “It’s going to take a crazy day for us to win two tomorrow.”

Unfortunately for the Razorbacks, it wasn't a crazy Monday afternoon against TCU.

The Horned Frogs beat No. 3 national seed Arkansas 12-4 at Baum-Walker Stadium to end the Razorbacks’ season and advance to a super regional against Indiana State.

TCU (40-22) won its ninth consecutive game and improved to 15-1 in its last 16 games.

If Arkansas (43-18) had beaten TCU in the afternoon matchup, the teams would have played a winner-take-all game Monday night. It would have been the Razorbacks’ fifth game in four days.

“Honestly, we ran out of pitching,” Van Horn said. “If we would have won the game, I don’t know who we would have thrown or how we’d have gone about it.”

The Razorbacks, who played as the visiting team and didn’t get a hit in the first four innings, took a 4-2 lead in the top of the fifth when Jace Bohrofen hit a two-run home run and Jared Wegner hit a solo home run off TCU starter Cam Brown.

“We had a two-run lead, but we also knew we were running out of bullets, so to speak,” Van Horn said. “We needed to keep scoring and we didn’t.”

The Horned Frogs regained the lead in the sixth inning when Austin Davis hit a two-run home run off Zack Morris put TCU ahead 6-4.

“The guys didn’t blink,” Horned Frogs Coach Kirk Saarloos said. “I mean, right now you really don’t have to say much as a coach. It’s pretty impressive to see them come into the dugout saying the things that you probably were going to say.”

More from WholeHogSports: All of our coverage of the NCAA Fayetteville Regional

TCU put the game away with Kurtis Byrne’s home run in the seventh inning off Gage Wood and five runs in the eighth, including home runs by Tre Richardson and Kurtis Byrne off Christian Foutch.

Ben Abeldt pitched the final 4 2/3 innings for the Horned Frogs and held the Razorbacks to 1 hit with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts.

“I thought he was awesome,” Van Horn said. “He had a couple of really quick innings and just held us down.”

The Razorbacks loaded the bases with no outs in the first inning when Brown hit leadoff batter Tavian Josenberger with a pitch and walked Bohrofen and Wegner, but they scored just one run on Ben McLaughlin’s sacrifice fly.

“They got all the momentum having the bases loaded with nobody out and to only give up one run there, coming back into the dugout that feels like a win,” Saarloos said.

Brown got Kendall Diggs out on a popup and struck out Caleb Cali to keep it a 1-0 lead for the Razorbacks.

“Cam Brown gave us a shot in the first to get him,” Van Horn said. “And what I mean by that is score probably three runs, and we only scored one. He worked his way out of it.”

The Razorbacks finished with three hits.

“We didn’t hit,” Van Horn said. “They pitched extremely well.”

Sophomore left-hander Hagen Smith pitched well for Arkansas after being knocked out in the second inning of TCU’s 20-5 victory over the Razorbacks on Sunday.

Smith replaced starter Cody Adcock in the second inning Monday and went 3 2/3 innings, holding the Horned Frogs to 1 run, 3 hits and 2 walks with 6 strikeouts on 67 pitches.

“Yesterday, it was obviously horrible,” Smith said of allowing six runs and eight hits on Sunday. “So it was good to come back and try to help the team win. Didn’t come out the way we wanted to, but I gave it my all.”

Van Horn said he wasn’t surprised with how Smith — an All-SEC first-team pick by the coaches — pitched on Monday after his Sunday struggles.

“He just pitched lights out,” Van Horn said.

Austin Davis hit a two-run single off Smith in the first inning — scoring runners put on base by Adcock — to put the Horned Frogs ahead 2-1.

“I think Hagen probably tell you he made one mistake, and that was on the 0-2 pitch [Davis] singled up the middle,” Van Horn said. “Other than that, he was awesome.

“Really talented guy, and we’ve got to take care of him. He probably could have gone another inning or two, but we didn’t feel like that would be very smart on our part.”

Adcock allowed 2 walks and 1 hit and hit a batter in 1 1/3 innings.

“Adcock gave us an inning fighting it,” Van Horn said. “He was behind in the count a lot.”

Including TCU’s 12-4 victory over Arizona on Friday, the Horned Frogs won their three regional games by a combined 44-13.

“They were a wrecking crew, man,” Van Horn said. “They were really good this weekend.”

The Horned Frogs also were really good against the Razorbacks in three meetings. Including TCU’s 18-6 victory over Arkansas on Feb. 18 in Arlington, Texas, the Horned Frogs outscored the Razorbacks 50-15.

“If I could figure it out …. we wouldn’t lose,” Saarloos said of TCU’s domination of Arkansas. “Baseball is super weird.”

Arkansas fell to 5-5 in home regionals. The Razorbacks won regionals at home in 2004, 2010, 2018, 2019 and 2021 and failed to advance from Baum-Walker Stadium in 1999, 2006, 2007 and 2011 in addition to this season.

“It’s really hard,” Van Horn said of winning a regional regardless of whether it’s at home or on the road. “It’s all about, ‘How are you playing? Are you healthy?’

“You just don’t know what you’re going to run into and how the ball’s going to bounce, and where everybody’s mind is at.

“Sometimes it’s easier on the road because people aren’t expecting you to win. Sometimes you’re expected to win. You get a little tight.

“That’s not what happened to us here. We got beat by a really, really good team and maybe we were running out of gas.”