WHS/HI: Five Keys to Beating Virginia

This article originally appeared on WholeHogSports.com and HawgsIllustrated.com on May 31, 2014.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A win against Virginia, the host school and No. 3 national seed, Saturday night would put Arkansas in the driver’s seat to win the Charlottesville Regional.

A loss, however, would mean the Razorbacks have to win three straight games to advance to the Super Regionals.

Since 1999, when the NCAA went to the current 16-regional format, 27 teams have won three games in a row after losing the 1-0 game to win the regional. Only eight of those teams were a two-seed or lower and two of them, LSU in 1999 and Cal State-Fullerton in 2004, did it as a two-seed host.

That means only six road teams have won three straight elimination games after losing the first winner’s bracket game.

1. Small-ball

Virginia made a living off of bunts and errors in its 10-1 win over Bucknell Friday afternoon. The Cavaliers had four sacrifice bunts and scored nine unearned runs on four errors by the Bison.

Bucknell had trouble fielding the bunts. After laying down sacrifice bunts in his first two at bats, Nate Irving laid down a third, but the Bison pitcher threw it away and two runs scoring. The error led to Virginia’s seven-run sixth inning that opened up the game.

If Arkansas expects to keep the game close, it must play small-ball and field bunts well.

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