Dave Van Horn addresses costly ninth inning mistakes by Wehiwa Aloy, Charles Davalan

Coach Dave Van Horn and Arkansas were up 5-3 and had a chance to end the game in the bottom of the ninth inning, forcing a winner-take-all contest against LSU for the right to advance to the College World Series championship series. It seemed like a fairly routine play.

With runners on first and second, a ball was hit to shortstop Wehiwa Aloy. But, instead of firing over to second to start a potential double play, Aloy opted to go to third to take out the lead runner.

He made the play, but it kept the game going with two outs. LSU would plate a pair of runs a moment or two later, tying the game. The momentum was too much, and the Tigers eventually drove home the winning run against the Razorbacks, a walk-off win in the ninth.

The distress was written all over Aloy’s face. He knew he had a shot at the double play.

Even Van Horn indicated after the game he thought they could have turned the double play. Instead, a massive “what if?”

“The way it all turned out, I guess I would have. I haven’t talked to him about it,” Van Horn said. “I think he felt he moved too far to his right for Cam (Kozeal) to turn it. I don’t know. He’s an average runner. He’s not a flyer, but he’s not slow either. So I don’t know.”

A misplayed ball in left field by Charles Davalan after the blown double play ball allowed the Tigers to tie it. Van Horn provided his view of that play, too.

“And then the ball — I had a straight-on view of it. It was hit hard, obviously,” Van Horn said. “It was kind of hooking and sinking. But it looked like Charles slipped like right at the beginning of taking off for it. When he slipped, he probably lost sight of it. When the ball is hit that hard, he’s just trying to find it. I’d have to watch it again. We’re a long ways away. That’s what I saw.”

Regardless, Van Horn was proud of his players. Taking LSU toe to toe is no easy task, and Arkansas fought hard from start to finish. That was enough to earn the manager’s praise.

“I just told them I appreciate the effort all year and the ride they took us on,” Van Horn said. “I just told them how much I appreciated them and that we’d talk again later.

“I told them two months ago that this team needed to finish in Omaha, and they did. It wasn’t the way we wanted to finish, but at least they got here. They competed their rear ends off.”