Honorable mention: Left-hander Dallas Keuchel also deserves praise for walking a tightrope for four innings of high-anxiety relief before finishing off the win with three strikeouts in the 12th.
Play of the game: Razorbacks shortstop Tim Carver, playing after starter Ben Tschepikow broke his finger, kept his nose in front of a wicked smash by Danny Hultzen to start a double play that ended the ninth.
Coming up empty: The teams combined for 28 strikeouts, the third most in CWS history.
Our take: Arkansas showed a ton of guts in pulling out the victory, but one has to wonder how much the Razorbacks have left as they head into the Bracket One championship round. Louisiana State looks like an overwhelming favorite to reach the championship finals, but Arkansas has already shown it's not going down without a fight.
— Steven Pivovar
One pressing question emerged Wednesday night in the aftermath of Arkansas' 4-3, 12-inning victory over Virginia at the College World Series.
How many lives does a Razorback have?
Coach Dave Van Horn's team might have used them all before Andrew Darr's RBI double secured the win that keeps it alive for two more days. The Razorbacks were down to their last strike in the ninth in the Bracket One elimination game before Brett Eibner rocked Virginia with a monster, two-run homer to tie the game.
The Cavaliers had the winning run 90 feet from home plate in the ninth, 10th and 11th innings, and had the tying run at third in the 12th before Dallas Keuchel struck out Franco Valdes to end the four-hour, 46-minute thriller before 21,383 fans at Rosenblatt Stadium.
“That was a lot of heart shown by some tough kids that didn't want to lose and didn't want to go home,'' Van Horn said. “It will be one that I'll never forget.''
Painful memories were burned into the minds of the Virginia players, who now face an offseason of asking what might have been after their season, and first trip to Omaha, ended at 49-15-1.
“This was an unbelievable ballgame,'' Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said. “It took everything from Arkansas. It took everything from Virginia, but unfortunately, we came out on the short end of the stick.''
The Cavaliers had Eibner, Darr and Keuchel to blame for most of that. They also must confront the reality that their own squandered opportunities and mistakes led to their demise.
Base-running mistakes cost Virginia at least two runs in the first eight innings. A fielding error set up Arkansas' first run.
“We had a lot of opportunities and didn't capitalize on them,'' O'Connor said. “You have to credit Arkansas. They pitched in the clutch and made some clutch plays.''
Trailing 3-1 entering the ninth, Arkansas saw Virginia closer Kevin Arico get two quick outs before putting Zack Cox in a one-ball, two-strike hole. Cox then singled sharply up the middle and, three pitches later, Eibner launched an Arico change-up halfway up the bleachers in left field.
“I was looking for an off-speed pitch,'' Eibner said. “I happened to get it and put a pretty good swing on it.''
Eibner's 11th homer tied the game, but Virginia countered with a bid to end the game in the bottom of the ninth. The Cavaliers loaded the bases before Keuchel got Danny Hultzen to scorch a one-hopper at freshman Tim Carver, who was in the game because Ben Tschepikow broke his finger when hit by a pitch in the sixth.
Carver knocked the ball down and bobbled it momentarily before starting a game-extending double play.
“We were saying, ‘Just hit it hard right at us,' because we knew that guy (Hultzen) could really run,'' Van Horn said. “He hit it hard and Carver stayed in front of it — or he didn't have time to get out of the way.
“They did their jobs, and that was exciting in our dugout. We got out of an incredible jam.''
Keuchel, the winning pitcher in Saturday's opening-round win over Cal State Fullerton, also flirted with disaster in each of the final three innings. Virginia had runners at second and third in the 10th before Keuchel struck out Jarrett Parker and John Hicks.
He loaded the bases with two outs in the 11th but retired Dan Grovatt on a groundout. After Arkansas took the lead in the 12th, Steven Proscia doubled to open the Virginia half of the inning and stole third on a strike-three pitch to Parker.
Keuchel then finished off his ninth win of the season by striking out Hicks and getting Franco Valdes to chase a pitch in the dirt for his fifth strikeout.
“I kept telling myself that this team has been through so much and I wasn't going to let them go out like that,'' Keuchel said. “I kept throwing that slider up there and I got some swings and misses.''
Darr, the hero of Arkansas' super-regional clincher at Florida State, delivered his second game-winning double of the NCAA tournament. Jarrod McKinney had singled with one out off losing pitcher Andrew Carraway and stole second. Darr then ripped the final pitch of a 10-pitch at-bat down the third-base line to bring McKinney home.
The Razorbacks couldn't relax until after Keuchel finished off the Cavaliers. Today, they'll start preparing for Friday's 1 p.m. bracket championship game against Louisiana State, which thumped Arkansas 9-1 on Monday.
Asked afterward who he might start in the game, Van Horn looked at a reporter and said, “Can you pitch?''
“We have some guys,'' he added. “They might not be the guys that are pitching for us on Friday, Saturday or Sunday during the season, but they'll go out there and give us a shot. We'll just need to find a way to score some runs.''
Game 9 Box Score
Contact the writer:
679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
