Dave Van Horn looks back on past LSU matchups ahead of CWS showdown: 'I remember them all'

The Arkansas Razorbacks are preparing to take on the LSU Tigers in a College World Series showdown. This is a matchup that Razorbacks head coach Dave Van Horn knows his team is very familiar with.

Ahead of the game, Van Horn looked back on those past games from this season. Those are games where LSU generally had the upper hand. So, he knows his team is going to need to be at its best to take down the Tigers.

“Yeah, we played them four times,” Dave Van Horn said. “We lost in extra innings. They whipped us. We beat them. Then what happened the other night, I remember them all. The first game finished about 1:15 in the morning, and then we got beat later that day. Then we won on a Sunday, which was a big win for our team, showed a little toughness. Obviously, [Kade] Anderson pitched extremely well the other day.”

Arkansas and LSU first met for a three-game series in early May. That was in Baton Rouge and saw each side when a close game. However, the Tigers were able to have a run-rule win over the Razorbacks in the second game of the series. They’d then meet again in Omaha where LSU won 4-1.

In those previous games, Arkansas averaged just 3.75 runs per game on LSU pitching. Finding a way to put up more runs than that is the chief concern for Dave Van Horn. On top of that, he knows he’ll need to continue getting good pitching performances from his staff.

“You just play. I mean, they’re really good,” Van Horn said. “They don’t have any weaknesses. They’ve got big-time arms. Their top six, seven arms, all are big-time at this level. They’ve got power, got some speed. You just have to pitch well against them and you’ve got to score. If we don’t score, we’ll be in trouble.”

Since the loss to LSU, Arkansas has added wins against Murray State and UCLA. The Tigers, meanwhile, have yet to lose a game since getting to Omaha.

If Arkansas loses to LSU, the Razorbacks will have suffered their second loss at the College World Series and are going to be eliminated. A win, however, would force another game against LSU where the winner would advance to the championship series.

Dave Van Horn addresses Arkansas’ pitching plan vs. LSU

By this time in the College World Series, teams have often used up most of their pitchers and depth becomes important. Dave Van Horn knows that and has to take it into account when setting up a pitching plan for the Razorbacks against LSU.

“We don’t know who we’re pitching yet, honestly. We’ll know probably — when do we have to turn the lineup in, about an hour and 50 minutes before — yeah,” Van Horn said.

“We have a couple of options, obviously a couple left, couple right, guys that have started some games this year. We’ll just try to piece it together tomorrow and see how it goes. … But we’re not 100 percent sure who we’re going to throw yet.”