Dave Van Horn addresses Arkansas' pitching plan vs. LSU

As Arkansas heads into a game against LSU with its season on the line, who will pitch for the Razorbacks remains to be seen. The Hogs have some options but might still have to get a little creative.

Gage Wood is out after tossing a complete game on Monday. Zach Root is also likely out after throwing 1.2 innings on Saturday and 5.0 innings on Tuesday. So where will Arkansas turn?

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

There are a handful of options. The most likely might be Landon Beidelschies, who has made 12 starts this season. He has a 4-0 record and a 4.92 ERA. Others with starts this year include Aiden Jimenez (3.0 innings pitched Tuesday), Colin Fisher, Tate McGuire and Ben Bybee. Gabe Gaeckle is probably a bit of a stretch as a potential starter after throwing 6.0 innings on Saturday.

“We have a couple of options, obviously a couple left, couple right, guys that have started some games this year,” Van Horn said. “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.”

Arkansas ready for rematch with LSU

This will be the fifth time this season that Arkansas has met LSU. The Hogs have lost three of the previous four meetings, including Saturday’s CWS opener in Omaha.

Van Horn knows it won’t be easy to engineer one win, much less two. And the Hogs need two to advance.

“We played them four times,” Van Horn said. “We lost in extra innings. They whipped us. We beat them. And then what happened the other night. I remember them all.”

Van Horn opened up on some of those meetings and what he can take from them. One key: Toughness.

“The first game finished about 1:15 in the morning,” Van Horn said. “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 Anderson pitched extremely well the other day.”

So what does Arkansas have to do on Wednesday? Van Horn laid out the blueprint.

“You just play. I mean, they’re really good,” he 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.”