Wehiwa Aloy provided the pop and Zach Root pitched five shutout innings to lead No. 3 Arkansas to a 7-3 victory over No. 15 UCLA in a College World Series elimination game on Tuesday in Omaha, Neb.
Aloy went 2-for-4 with a home run and a triple. The junior shortstop drove in three runs and scored twice for the Razorbacks (50-14). Teammate Logan Maxwell went 2-for-3 with a two-run double, and Brent Iredale finished 2-for-2 and scored three times.
Root (9-6), Aiden Jimenez and Will McEntire held the Bruins to six hits. Two errors and a wild pitch aided UCLA’s three-run ninth.
Dean West and Payton Brennan each went 2-for-4 to lead the Bruins, with Brennan scoring a run. Mulivai Levu tripled and scored for UCLA (48-18), which was relegated to the losers bracket after falling 9-5 to No. 6 LSU in a game that was completed earlier on Tuesday after weather forced a suspension Monday night.
A day after Gage Wood’s no-hitter over Murray State kept the Razorbacks alive, the Bruins made sure Root did not get another when West and Roch Cholowsky both singled to start the game. Root walked Roman Martin with one out to load the bases.
Root, though, escaped unscathed. He got AJ Salgado to line out and then threw out West, who tried a straight steal of home with Brennan at the plate. Root struck out five, allowed three hits and issued two walks during his second start in Omaha.
Aloy went opposite field to the right field bullpen off Cody Delvecchio (1-4) for his 21st homer of the season in the first inning. In the fifth, he missed a homer by about a foot on his RBI triple off the wall in center.
Next up for the Razorbacks is a Wednesday night rematch with LSU, which beat Arkansas 4-1 in the MCWS opener for both teams on Saturday.
–Field Level Media
