Titans lose opener to Arkansas, 10-6

Andy Wilkins homered and drove in five runs to help Arkansas start off the College World Series with a 10-6 victory over Cal State Fullerton on Saturday.

The Razorbacks ripped freshman pitcher Noe Ramirez while stunning the No. 2-seeded Titans and giving Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn his first victory in seven CWS games.

The Razorbacks (40-22) play Monday night against Louisiana State, a 9-5 winner over Virginia in Saturday’s other game. Fullerton (47-15) will play Virginia in a Bracket 1 elimination game.

Arkansas manufactured two runs in the first inning, scored twice more in the third on Zack Cox’s homer, then broke open the game with a five-run fourth. Wilkins highlighted the big inning with a three-run homer to right against freshman Tyler Pill, making his first relief appearance.

Ramirez (9-2) lasted only 3 2/3 innings, the shortest of his 15 starts, and gave up seven runs. The first freshman pitcher to start a CWS game for Fullerton left after loading the bases with a walk in the fourth.

“I guess I was a little nervous and too excited,” Ramirez said.

Scott Lyons grounded Pill’s first pitch between shortstop and third base for a 6-2 lead, and then Wilkins hit his team-leading 19th homer.

Wilkins is batting .593 (16 for 27) with four homers, five other extra-base hits and 17 RBIs in six NCAA tournament games.

Dallas Keuchel (8-3) gave up four runs and five hits to win his first decision since May 2. Mike Bolsinger pitched the last three innings for his second save.

Fullerton, in the CWS for the 16th time and going for its fifth national title, is one loss from an early exit.

“I don’t think I have to say much to this team,” Titans first baseman Jared Clark said. “We can’t lose another game. All I can tell them is to play better. We got off our game today. . . . All I can say is let’s get back to playing Titan baseball.”

The Titans’ young pitchers couldn’t stave off an Arkansas offense that scored 10 or more runs for the fourth time in six national tournament games.

Fullerton scored twice in the third to cut Arkansas’ lead to 4-2. Joey Siddons came home on a sacrifice fly, and Christian Colon scored from third when first baseman Wilkins couldn’t come up with Josh Fellhauer’s hard grounder.

The Titans, trailing 10-4, loaded the bases in the eighth but came away with only one run when Dustin Garneau hit into an inning-ending double play.

“Today wasn’t their day,” Fullerton Coach Dave Serrano said. “Arkansas did a good job against those guys. . . . All we do is ask guys to give us quality at-bats. We didn’t do that enough today.”

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Louisiana State 9, Virginia 5 -- Sean Ochinko’s three-run homer gave LSU the lead in the fifth inning and Ryan Schimpf’s two-run blast in the eighth broke open the game for the third-seeded Tigers.