Dave Van Horn reveals Arkansas pitching plan for pivotal CWS game on Thursday

On3 imageby:James Fletcher III06/23/22

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Arkansas fought off elimination on Wednesday night to force a win-or-go-home matchup with Ole Miss on Thursday night behind strong pitching. Now, as they look to repeat the performance, Razorbacks head coach Dave Van Horn must figure out how to utilize his pitching staff and plan for the next outing.

During the postgame press conference, Dave Van Horn discussed his pitching plan for Thursday afternoon and named Connor Noland the starter. He also assured the media that it will be all-hands-on-deck.

“Yeah, Connor will start,” said Van Horn. “That was the plan. If we could get to tomorrow — I mean, we weren’t going to use him tonight or we would have used him. Give him another day. He’s been preparing for it and working out, just like their guy. He was long tossing today. We saw him. We watched. We knew that he was getting ready for tomorrow if needed.

“Yeah, that’s the plan. I don’t know, again, the game usually tells you what to do. We’ll see what we see from him and see what kind of stuff he has, see what type of swings they’re taking, and we’ll go to the next guy.”

While Arkansas confirms that Connor Noland will throw on short rest with a chance to extend the season, Ole Miss is expected to bring out their ace Dylan DeLucia. Both pitchers last worked five days ago – the standard rest break for MLB pitchers – which is slightly below the typical seven-day break for college pitchers in the regular season.

Updated College World Series odds

Ole Miss is hoping to send SEC foe Arkansas back to Fayetteville after evening the postseason record on Wednesday night. The Rebels had the upper hand in Monday’s game, winning 13-5 while chasing six Hogs pitchers. On Wednesday night, Arkansas wrapped up the 3-2 win despite loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth before a pitching change.

Arkansas and Ole Miss will face off one more time on Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN2 for the final spot in the championship series which will start on Saturday.

Las Vegas oddsmakers cannot pick between the two at this time, releasing both Arkansas and Ole Miss at +240 to win the national championship ahead of their showdown for a chance to play Oklahoma. Because the Sooners have already advanced to the final round, they are currently favorites at +100.