Baseball Team Headed for Arkansas Regional

By David Bush

May 27, 2019

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The Cal baseball team, which finished the season on a three-game win streak, is headed to the NCAA Tournament. The Bears (32-18) are going to the Fayetteville, Ark. regional, hosted by the University of Arkansas.

“It was a sense of relief,” said All-American first-baseman Andrew Vaughn after the nationally televised selection show. “I think we had a pretty good shot this year. I was pretty confident.”

Cal, in the postseason for the first time since 2015, is second-seeded in the regional and will face TCU (32-26) the third seed in its first game Friday afternoon (4 p.m. PDT). Arkansas, the top seed in the regional and fifth overall in the 64-team tournament, and Central Connecticut State round out the Fayetteville Field. Cal vs. TCU is the same matchup as the Cheez-It Bowl in December. Who says the NCAA doesn’t have a sense of humor.

The regional is a round-robin double elimination. The 16 regional winners advance to a Super Regional, which is a best-of-three, two-game matchup. The eight winners then go to the College World Series in Omaha.

Head coach Mike Neu said the Bears will probably start ace pitcher Jared Horn against the Horned Frogs. Horn, who was 6-1 with a 1.82 ERA, typically drew the second game of the weekend conference series.

“We will look at the matchups,” Neu said. “We obviously have to consider leading with Horn, he has been our best guy. We’ve got to win the first two games to give ourselves the best chance. We can go a different route, but obviously, the best chance is to win those first two games and then you have to have somebody beat you twice.”

https://youtu.be/FMKLhIwPvvw

The Horned Frogs were one of the last teams to get an at-large bid to the tournament. They won their last three conference games and made the semis of the Big 12 Tournament. They also had a dozen wins against top-50 opponents, more than any of the other bubble teams, and won 16 games on the road.

“Four or five weeks ago, nobody was thinking about TCU,” said Ray Tanner, South Carolina’s athletic director who serves as the NCAA baseball selection committee chairman, during the selection show on ESPNU.

“They made a run. They can be dangerous with their starting pitching and they have everybody healthy right now. They were one of the last teams in for sure, but we feel like they’re one of the best teams and deserving of being in the 64.”

The Bears immediately started doing their homework on the next opponent.

“We played TCU my freshman year.,” Vaughn said. “We will probably get their left-hander (Nick) Lodolo.”

That is more than likely because the 6-6 junior is considered by many to be the best pitcher in the upcoming major league draft. He had just a 6-5 record, but with a 2.48 ERA and 125 strikeouts and just 21 walks in 98 innings.

Other than preparing for an unfamiliar group of opponents, Neu said it will be business as usual for the Bears getting ready for this weekend.

“I don’t think anything changes for us,” he said. “We have played on some pretty big stages this year, we played at LSU, we played at Oregon State, played at UCLA. I think our guys understand it is going to be a tough environment, But we’ve been there before and we have acquitted ourselves well.”

Cal is one of five Pac-12 teams to make the NCAAs. UCLA, the overall No. 1 seed, Oregon State and Stanford are hosting regionals. Arizona State is a No. 2 seed in the LSU Regional. Neu said he was mildly surprised that Arizona was not included. He compared the Wildcats to his team last year, when the Bears felt they deserved a bid but were snubbed.

The Bears should be healthy this weekend. Vaughn, who missed the second game at Washington last weekend with the flu, said he is ready to go. Also outfielder Brandon McIlwain, who broke his foot in early April, likely will be back.

“It feels good,” McIlwain said Monday. “I see the doctor tomorrow and expect to get an OK.”