Dave Van Horn admits Arkansas ran out of pitching during regional final vs. TCU

NCAA Regionals are difficult to get out of, particularly if you don’t have a lot of pitching depth and are forced to play out of the loser’s bracket. Arkansas ran into both in the Fayetteville Regional over the weekend, even while advancing to the regional final.

After beating Santa Clara 13-6 in the opening game, the Hogs were on the wrong end of a 20-5 beatdown by TCU, dropping to the loser’s bracket. Arkansas came out of it by beating Santa Clara to force a rematch with TCU, but much of the damage had already been done.

“Honestly we ran out of pitching,” coach Dave Van Horn said matter of factly after the game.

And it’s a valid position.

Even before going into the NCAA Regional, Arkansas had lost top reliever Dylan Carter for the season due to a tear in his UCL. The Razorbacks had also lost starting pitcher Jaxon Wiggins due to Tommy John surgery. Then reliever Koty Frank also suffered a torn lat muscle and was lost for the year.

Arkansas used three pitchers in the first game against Santa Clara, then four against TCU, then three more against Santa Clara before getting to the TCU rematch in the regional final.

“If we’d have won the game I don’t know who we would have thrown or how we’d have gone about it,” Van Horn said. “We’ve been battling this all year, and we knew everything had to be just right for us to get through a regional. We felt like we had a better chance to win a Super Regional, obviously, than a regional because of our injuries and lack of pitching depth and experience that it was going to take.

“We were either really going to have to hit or our starters were going to have to give us a lot of innings. Unfortunately the teams we played didn’t really give us that opportunity.”

Arkansas did what it could in the regional final against TCU, trying to cobble together enough pitching to get by.

But the Horned Frogs were hitting the cover off the ball all weekend and made life tough with 12 hits, eventually winning the game 12-4. It was a tough season for Arkansas, which had an incredible amount of talent but was also decimated by injuries.

“Really proud of the team. Spent 12 hours here on the field sweating yesterday,” Van Horn said. “Delays and I know that I got home after midnight and it takes a while to get to sleep, and I’m sure the players are the same way. I feel like they gave us everything they had and we were in that game for five or six innings.”