2025 MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 17, 2025

Dave Van Horn

Logan Maxwell

Wehiwa Aloy

Zach Root

Arkansas Razorbacks

Postgame Press Conference

Arkansas - 7, UCLA -3

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn and student-athletes Wehiwa Aloy, Logan Maxwell and Zach Root.

DAVE VAN HORN: I thought it was just a great job by our pitchers tonight. Zach Root threw 38 pitches a few days ago. Threw 87 tonight. Only gave up three hits. Didn't give up a run. Just did a tremendous job.

And Aiden came in and gave us three really good innings. The last inning, you know, give them credit, they hook a ball down the line. They line out. But other than that, we made a few mistakes.

Just a really solid job by our offense, getting on base. And Wehiwa got the big hit, gave us a cushion. Went oppo and hit it really hard. And obviously the big two-out hit off the wall scored another run. Then put him on, walked him to get to Maxwell and he fought off a few pitches. Got him a breaking ball, hit in the gap and scored two more. Those are -- all runs are driven in there with two outs.

That was the separator. Gave us an opportunity to save our bullpen a little bit and get ready for the next game.

Q. Wehiwa, unique situation today. What was the scouting report like facing a guy like Delvecchio where he hasn't pitched in over two months? And then off the bat, did you know you got it, because it's not easy to go opposite field here at this park?

WEHIWA ALOY: Yeah, the wind kind of shifted a little bit. I seen the ball going there. Got it pretty good and put some runs on for the team.

Q. Zach, I saw that Gage was wearing your windbreaker before the game. Is that something he just found and put on? Is that something he asked for from you?

ZACH ROOT: He forgot his jersey at the hotel. (Laughter).

DAVE VAN HORN: We teach our kids to be honest around here. (Laughter).

Q. Logan, Wehiwa's home run in the first, how much of a relief, a spark for the team today given some offensive struggles the first two games, and seeing your Golden Spikes nominee kind of get you rolling there to start?

LOGAN MAXWELL: It gave us a lot of confidence as a group. It was a big swing, especially in the first inning, scoring first. Kind of building off of that, it was pretty good.

Q. Zach, the emotions the past couple of days, maybe coming off the start against LSU, did you expect to be back in this situation on the mound so quickly after that? And how good did today feel?

ZACH ROOT: Yeah, I expected it. Hobbs pulled me aside the day after and said, we're just going to get you back as soon as possible. And he'd let me know when that is. I told him I was good to go whenever he needed me.

It felt great to go out there put my team in like a great chance to win. I mean, Ryder called a really good game. And Zane Becker, he needs a shout out because he just does so much behind the scenes for me up in between innings, warming guys up in the bullpen. And he's as big a part of this as anyone else.

Q. Dave, a lot of the big hits tonight were opposite field -- Wehiwa, Logan. It feels like all season that's been a sign of when this team is hitting their best, they're going the opposite way. Is that something you've seen? And what did you like from the team's approach tonight?

DAVE VAN HORN: I thought they did a great job trying to stay through the middle of the field. And that leads to hitting the ball the other way, and with some authority. They weren't just flicking it over the second baseman or shortstop. They were driving the ball, letting the ball get deep and not jumping at the ball, guessing. Just seeing it and reacting a little bit. They did a tremendous job.

Q. To get the start you did out of Zach today after it went the way it did the first game, how big is that for you guys?

DAVE VAN HORN: It was big. Playing UCLA, obviously, they played this morning. Both teams were fighting to continue their season. And for him to go out and give us five innings like he did gave us an opportunity to jump out there a little bit.

I think when he came out of the game, we had a three-run lead going into the sixth. Just really proud of him. Obviously he wasn't happy when I took him out the other day, but just the situation, I already mentioned the other day about it, just didn't feel like we could give up much more and who they had coming up and who they had on the mound, just needed to do something different.

He went out today and just proved why he's one of the best left-handed pitchers in the country. If we get to play long enough, maybe he'll get to pitch again.

Q. I asked Wehiwa, but I'll go to you as well. How easy/hard it may have been scouting Delvecchio after he hadn't pitched in over two months?

DAVE VAN HORN: Yeah, so you just go off of the video that we have on him from before. You look at the stats. You look at walks, the strikeouts, how is he doing against lefties and righties. And actually righties hit him better. I think they kind of went that way a little bit.

Yeah, it's tough. But the main thing we do is we do what we do, and just try to stay through the middle, make him throw strikes.

We thought his velocity might be up a little bit since he was pretty well rested. But it was about normal from what we had. Nothing was different than what we talked about in our hitters' meeting today.

Q. Three runs yesterday, seven today. How do you feel like the offense is progressing? And how do you think it sets you guys up for a rematch?

DAVE VAN HORN: Yeah, I mean, I think we have a good offense. We're facing some really good pitching. You just can't change too much at this time of year. You just try to improve in some areas. We don't have everybody hitting, obviously. You could go through it a little bit. Our nine-hole hitter has five or six hits. And some guys in the middle of the order, they have maybe one.

We just need to get some guys going if we're going to get through what we need to get through. I'm just glad we're scoring more runs and obviously it was a little better tonight to hit in the ballpark.

It's not as humid and the wind was blowing different directions, but it wasn't stopping the ball like it was the other day. I think Iredale hit a ball the other day opposite field that would have been out of the park and it barely made it to the warning track.

This time of year we're working on what we do every day and try to put together a game plan and advance. So here we are.

Q. You mentioned your nine-hole hitter having five or six hits in the College World Series. Justin Thomas Jr., is on quite the terror in the College World Series. Can you talk about seeing him have a little bit of success on the biggest stage of the season?

DAVE VAN HORN: He's a good hitter. He could hit 1 or 2 hole for us. We started him out 9 hole. We got off to a good start. We were winning. We feel like he's our second lead-off man. He'll take a walk, fouls off pitches. He can bunt a little bit. Almost got that bunt down today; just was in the air a little too long.

Obviously you need production up and down the lineup. So it's really good to see him do what he's doing. He got four hits the other night. I don't know how many he had tonight, but just seemed like he was always on base.

That last one was a big hit. Gave us I think that seventh run and gave us, like I said, an opportunity to maybe save our bullpen a little bit.

Q. Do you have a pitching plan for tomorrow? And how do you feel about where your arms kind of stand right now? Probably couldn't ask for much better coming out of the losers' bracket right now.

DAVE VAN HORN: We don't know who we're pitching yet, honestly. We'll know probably -- when do we have to turn the lineup in, about an hour and 50 minutes before -- yeah.

We have a couple of options, obviously a couple left, couple right, guys that have started some games this year. 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.

Q. Dave, going forward to face a team in LSU that you've already played several times this season, how do you approach that rematch knowing how familiar you all are with each other?

DAVE VAN HORN: Yeah, we played them four times. We lost in extra innings. They whipped us. We beat them. And then what happened the other night. I remember them all.

The first game finished about 1:15 in the morning. 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.

You just play. I mean, they're really good. 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.