2022 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 20, 2022

Dave Van Horn

Braydon Webb

Peyton Stovall

Arkansas Razorbacks

Postgame Press Conference

Ole Miss - 13, Arkansas - 5

DAVE VAN HORN: Obviously we didn't pitch very good. Got off to a bad start. Zack didn't get out of the first inning. Walked a couple. Gave up an 0-2 count single to the lead-off man. That was kind of the beginning of it. And we just didn't pitch very well.

And you've got to give credit to Hunter Elliott. He did. He came out and he gave them some quality innings and let them build up a lead.

We almost crawled back into it after a couple, and then they go out and get a couple more in the third. That was a little disappointing. The fifth inning, that's when the game pretty much turned -- couple of walks, couple of hits, maybe three walks, I'm not sure. But we just didn't slow them down.

And the walks, I think we had eight or nine, maybe 10 walks tonight. And you're not going to beat people at this level with that.

Q. I think they had their bullpen up in the second inning, so you were getting some hits on Elliott. What do you think he did that settled him and allowed him to go 6 2/3s, if you all could?

BRAYDON WEBB: He was mixing well and throwing a lot of strikes. We hit some balls hard, just right at them. And their defense made some plays and allowed him to go farther in the game.

PEYTON STOVALL: Yeah, I thought he mixed well and we were very close to getting to him. His pitch count started to get up and get high. We couldn't string a couple of hits together and didn't get that big hit. But overall I thought he mixed well and did a really good job of keeping them in the game and giving them a quality start.

Q. What's kind of the mindset going into tomorrow, elimination game?

PEYTON STOVALL: For me, I think as a whole team, just being confident and just going out there and, yeah, it's an elimination game. But at the end of the day just relax, have fun and just play loose. That's when we're at our best. If we're able to do that I think we'll have success tomorrow.

BRAYDON WEBB: Just piggyback off that, it's all about perspective. We're blessed to still be here and have the opportunity to go out and compete tomorrow. And just play our brand of baseball, have some fun. And tomorrow's a new day.

Q. What are you seeing from Ole Miss that's maybe a little different than what you saw from them in the regular season?

DAVE VAN HORN: Well, I thought they were awfully good when we played them. I thought they were just maybe a pitch away or a hit away from winning the series against us. They got their whole lineup back. And they're pitching really well right now.

So they've got a true ace. And then almost probably another ace. When you look at Elliott, he's been getting after it as well down the stretch.

So I think they're just very veteran. They're very confident and they're hard to beat.

Q. What allowed the Ole MIss hitters to have so much success against your pitchers tonight?

DAVE VAN HORN: They were ahead in the count. Pretty simple -- 2-0, 3-1, it's easy to hit.

Q. Dave, two things, could you address what you said to them about getting through the losers' bracket starting tomorrow? And you used seven pitchers. Nobody threw too much. Could you talk about the state of your pitching staff and would you start McEntire tomorrow?

DAVE VAN HORN: Yeah, so I'll start with the second question. We threw some guys that didn't throw much down the -- the last three guys. And Wiggins hasn't thrown -- he didn't throw last weekend and we still got here. Ramage we have thrown him a couple times now. He could go a hitter or two. Taylor could go 20 pitches. Morris could go again.

He's been a guy that's thrown a couple times on the weekend. We could start Will. We could start a couple other guys. Not sure yet, though.

So what did I tell the guys after the game? They played better than us, and we need to move on. You can't look at the big picture. You have to figure out how to play well tomorrow. Got to play well tomorrow. Got to won tomorrow and have a chance to play the next day. That's our focus, just move on and get to tomorrow night's game.

Q. Yesterday you told us it was going to be Will or Zack. Can you walk us through that decision process and what made you decide to go to Zack?

DAVE VAN HORN: Probably the fact that they're hitting, like, .248 against righties. You dig deeper into the stats, most of the damage they do, you know, home runs, big innings, extra base hits come off right-handed pitchers. And that would be the reason.

Q. You had the lead-off man reach base all three of the first innings. Did it feel like Cayden Wallace getting picked off kind of sucked some momentum out of your dugout?

DAVE VAN HORN: Yeah, it did. I mean, he knows he shouldn't have got picked off. We weren't stealing. We weren't doing anything. We were down. I think what really hurt our momentum is we punched in two rounds in the bottom of the second. It's 4-3. And then they punched in two at the top of the third. That was killer.

Him getting picked off was not good. He knows it. He felt bad about it. He had a great at-bat to get there. I don't know how many pitches he saw, fouled off a bunch, finally drew a walk. And we had 4, 5, 6 coming up. Who knows what would have happened. But that hurt momentum a little bit.