OMAHA, Neb. — The Arkansas baseball team is a national semifinalist.
The Razorbacks defeated UCLA 7-3 on Tuesday at Charles Schwab Field to move to set up an all-SEC final on their side of the bracket.
Arkansas (50-14) is scheduled to play LSU (50-15) on Wednesday at 6 p.m., needing a win to force a decisive game against the Tigers on Thursday. The winner of the Arkansas-LSU matchup will play against Coastal Carolina or Louisville for the national championship beginning this weekend.
The Razorbacks must beat LSU twice to advance to the championship series, while the Tigers only need to win once. Arkansas lost 4-1 to LSU on Saturday in Omaha and is 1-3 against the Tigers this season.
Wehiwa Aloy had a pair of big swings and pitchers Zach Root and Aiden Jimenez combined for 8 shutout innings before UCLA scored all of its runs in the ninth against pitcher Will McEntire.
The Bruins (48-18) were eliminated with their second loss of the day. UCLA lost 9-5 to LSU on Tuesday afternoon in the resumption of a game suspended the night before. The Bruins played 15 innings over the course of 12 hours.
Aloy followed Charles Davalan’s single with a 377-foot 2-run home run to right-center field in the first inning. He added a 408-foot RBI triple off the wall in center field in the fifth to score Brent Iredale.
Both of Aloy’s extra-base hits came on 2-2 pitches and the triple was a 2-out hit.
Iredale and Justin Thomas led off the fifth inning with back-to-back singles to chase UCLA right-handed starter Cody Delvecchio. Following a pitching change to left-hander Ian May, Davalan hit into a double play.
Aloy fouled off a 2-2 pitch before driving a slider to center. The ball bounced hard off the wall and back over the head of sliding center fielder Payton Brennan, allowing Aloy to advance to third for his second triple of the season.
The home run was Aloy’s 21st of the year, which ranks fourth on the single-season list at Arkansas. Ryan Lundquist hit 24 home runs in 1997, Danny Hamblin hit 22 in 2007 and Brett Eibner hit 22 in 2010.
One day after Gage Wood threw the first no-hitter at the CWS in 65 years, Arkansas got another sterling pitching performance.
Root, pitching 72 hours after a 1 2/3-inning start against LSU, allowed 3 hits and 2 walks, and struck out 5 during his 5 scoreless innings. He threw 55 of 87 pitches for strikes.
Two of those hits were by Dean West and Roch Cholowsky to start the game. A 1-out walk by Roman Martin loaded the bases.
AJ Salgado lined out to Aloy falling down at shortstop for the second out, then West was out trying to steal home. Root came out of his windup early to make the throw home to catcher Ryder Helfrick, and Helfrick applied a tag that was upheld after a replay review.
UCLA was out twice on the bases. An errant throw by the third baseman Iredale allowed Mulivai Levu to reach to lead off the fourth inning, but Levu fell down trying to advance and was thrown out at first by Omaha native second baseman Cam Kozeal, who was backing up first baseman Reese Robinett on the high throw.
Jimenez retired the first 6 batters he faced in 23 pitches during the sixth and seventh innings.
He ran into trouble in the eighth when 8-hole hitter Cashel Dugger worked a 10-pitch walk to lead off the inning and West added a 1-out single. But with runners at the corners, Cholowsky hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.
Jimenez allowed 1 run and 1 hit, and struck out 2 during his 3-inning, 41-pitch outing.
Arkansas went ahead 5-0 in the seventh when Iredale drew a leadoff walk and Aloy was intentionally walked with 2 outs. Logan Maxwell hit a 2-run double to left-center field against Chris Grouthues to score Iredale from third and Aloy from first.
Iredale, who moved the No. 8 hole for the first time, went 2 for 2, drew 2 walks and scored 3 runs. He also committed 2 errors defensively.
Batting second, Aloy was 2 for 3 with 1 walk, 2 runs and 3 RBI.
Kozeal put Arkansas ahead 6-0 in the eighth. He led off the inning with a walk, advanced on a passed ball and a groundout, and came home on a wild pitch by right-hander Justin Lee.
Lee walked Iredale in the next at-bat. Iredale stole second base and went to third on a throwing error by the catcher Dugger. Thomas’ 2-out RBI double scored him to increase the lead to 7-0.
The Bruins scored 3 runs during a ninth inning that included 2 errors and 1 wild pitch by the Razorbacks.
Levu led off with a triple and scored after a 1-out fielding error by Iredale. Payton Brennan singled to the mound and went to second base on a throwing error by McEntire in the next at-bat, which allowed Salgado to score.
Brennan scored on a 2-out wild pitch. McEntire also walked Dugger with 2 outs before Phoenix Call hit a game-ending fly out to center field.
Making his first appearance since March 28, Delvecchio allowed 3 runs and 7 hits, and struck out 3 over the course of 4 innings and 68 pitches. Delvecchio was UCLA’s No. 1 starter to open the season but sat out several weeks with an eligibility issue that was resolved just before the CWS began.
Arkansas defeated UCLA for the first time. The Bruins won the only previous meetings between the teams during a midweek matchup in 1999.
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