OMAHA, Neb. – It was great pitching stopping strong hitting.
Kade Anderson and two relievers combined to hold Arkansas to four hits and one run as No. 6 LSU registered a 4-1 victory on Saturday evening in Game 4 of the 2025 College World Series in front of 25,464 fans at Charles Schwab Field.
“Great win for our team,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said. “Outstanding performance against a great team in Arkansas. Start with Kade, outstanding performance. What we’ve been accustomed to on the opening night of every weekend this year. I thought he got stronger as the game went along. I thought he executed pitches at a really high level, which you have to do against that offense.”
The Razorbacks (48-14) will face Murray State in an elimination game on Monday at 1 p.m. CT. The Tigers (49-15) will meet UCLA on Monday at 6 p.m. CT.
Anderson (11-1) worked 7.0 innings with three hits, one run, two walks and seven strikeouts. He raised his season total to 170 strikeouts, the top mark in the nation.
“I think Coach Johnson does a really good job in preparing our team,” Anderson said. “And when you treat every game like a playoff, you get used to it. LSU is used to being in Omaha and that’s something that we do often. We’re proud to say that.”
LSU got the scoring started in the top of the second. Luis Hernandez and Derek Curiel drew one-out walks and Daniel Dickinson laid down a beautiful bunt down the third base line for a hit to load the bases. Chris Stanfield singled to left to bring home Hernandez with the first run. Michael Braswell was hit by a pitch to plate Curiel. Dickinson scored when Arkansas was unable to turn a double play, making it 3-0 and ending the night for starter Zach Root.
“Offensively, we did just enough,” Johnson said. “And really good job by Luis drawing a walk, Derek falling down 0-2 and drawing a walk. And then great bunt by Danny. Chris, staying within himself, not doing too much, moving the ball to the outfield, getting another free base with the hit-by-pitch. And Josh moving the ball against a really tough left-hander to get three.”
Gabe Gaeckle took over on the hill for the Hogs and hurled 6.0 innings with three hits, one run, one walk and a career-best 10 strikeouts.
“I just wanted to eat up some innings to save some guys,” Gaeckle said, “because we’ve got a lot of games ahead of us.”
Reese Robinett smacked a long homer to right to lead off the bottom of the sixth, putting Arkansas on the board and making it a 3-1 game.
LSU added an insurance run in the eighth. Steven Milam had a one-out double and scored on a base hit by Curiel on an 0-2 pitch with two away to extend the lead to 4-1.
“Trusting myself with two strikes,” Curiel said, “whether that’s taking or swinging. I know, with my hand-eye coordination, I could be able to battle in any count. So I’m never defeated in the box, even when I go down 0-2 on two pretty ugly swings, probably my two ugliest swings of the year.”
Chase Shores entered to pitch for the Tigers with a runner first in the bottom of the eighth. He fanned a pair before a lineout to center sent the game to the ninth.
Casan Evans took over on the mound for LSU in the ninth. He surrendered a single to Charles Davalan to start the frame before a strikeout and a pair of groundouts secured the seventh save of the season for Evans.
“I thought our pitching was incredible,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “Obviously Anderson and Shores did a tremendous job. And they finished it up with Evans in the ninth. We had a couple of chances to score some runs and we didn’t. Reese hit a home run and got us kind of feeling pretty good, down 3-1. We just needed to score the next inning, but we didn’t. Really it boiled down to Anderson. He didn’t give us anything. He’s 11-1 because he’s really good.”
Arkansas entered the game with a team batting average of .313 and averaged 8.8 runs per contest. The Razorbacks went 4 for 29 (.138) and tallied a season-low one run.
Anderson pitched against Arkansas on May 9, going 5.2 innings with seven hits, three runs, one walk and 10 strikeouts in a game that LSU won 5-4 in 10 innings.
“He doesn’t leave the ball over the middle of the plate,” said Van Horn about Anderson. “Even his misses are close. He missed a lot of pitches away to righties that you could tell he was a little frustrated that it was that tight. Changes speeds just enough. The first time we faced him, he struck us out more, but we hit him harder. When we hit it, we hit it hard, and we scored some runs on him. Tonight, when we hit it, we didn’t hit it real hard most of the time. He’s a really good pitcher, polished. I think he’s going to continue to just get a lot better as he gets bigger and stronger. You can just see the projection there.”
“He’s got tremendous stuff,” Johnson said of Anderson. “It’s four pitches for strikes. He’s never boxed into having to throw a certain way, which as a hitting coach makes it tough to plan against him because he can always pivot. He’s got a plan for any type of hitter, left, right, power, good bat-to-ball type guys. I thought he just executed. He’s such a tremendous competitor. I mean, he got us a win in a Super Regional game and got us through the seventh inning and was just, for lack of a better word, irritated at his performance. Those guys are special. They don’t come along very often.”
Notes
LSU is 32-7 when scoring first and 40-2 when leading by three or more runs at any point.
The Tigers are 37-1 when leading after both seven and eighth innings.
Cam Kozeal of Arkansas singled in the eighth for his 75th hit of the season. He is an Omaha native and graduate of Millard South High School. His father is a member of the Charles Schwab Field grounds crew.
Teams to score first in the 2025 College World Series are 4-0. Last year teams to score first at the CWS went 11-4.