In an unpredictable weekend to kick off the 2025 NCAA Baseball Tournament Regional Round, the Arkansas Razorbacks got a constellation of stellar performances en route to sweeping the Fayetteville Regional in Baum Walker Stadium with decisive wins over the North Dakota State Bison and the Creighton Blue Jays.
Razorback starting pitchers Zach Root and Gage Wood earned wins with dominant performances while Parker Coil, Landon Beidelschies and Gabe Gaeckle all came on in relief to contribute to a record number of strikeouts. At the plate, two-time Razorbacker of the Week winner Ryder Helfrick continued to lead the way with SEC Player of the Year Wehiwa Aloy living up to his billing, Logan Maxwell, Justin Thomas and others all getting into a record-sitting home run hit parade.
Cam Kozeal earns Razorbackers of the Week: Fayetteville Regional
The edge for Razorbacker of the Week however had to go to sophomore infielder Cameron Kozeal whose hot hitting to start the regional round did the most to help veteran head coach Dave Van Horn's team move on to the Super Regional Round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the last four years.
The sophomore Vanderbilt transfer from Omaha, Nebraska, finished the weekend with a .461 batting average in the opening win over the Bison and a two-game sweep over the Big East champion Blue Jays. He scored six runs on six hits with three runs batted in while walking once and striking out twice and leaving no runners stranded.
Helfrick, a fellow sophomore and previous ROW winner, was nearly just as effective with four runs scored and four rbis on six hits while walking twice for a .363 batting average. The edge for this weekend's award went to Kozeal mostly because of the timeliness of his hitting with the team needing assert itself in the first two games and take command of the regional.
"It was the first game of the regional and you don’t want to go out there timid," Kozeal said on Friday. "You never want to go out there timid so it was just going out there and attacking and getting your best swing off. Coach (Nate) Thompson did a great job of getting a plan for us."
Kozeal not only credited Razorback hitting coach Nate Thompson but his collaborative approach of his teammates.
"(Designated hitter) Kuhio (Aloy) sess a lot of pitches, so that makes him fun to hit behind," Kozeal said. "He’s a great hitter too and I can bounce ideas off of him and (lead off hitter Charles) Davalan and (right fielder Logan) Maxwell a lot. They are two really good left handed hitters.
"It’s just seeing the ball out of the pitcher’s hand and it makes it seem like slow motion. Go out there, don’t be timid and attack. Hit the fastball hard. They will have great control over their off speed at some point but as a hitter it kind of frees you up, so you can focus on one thing. So yeah, it was a fun day at the ball park."
With Coil shutting down North Dakota State hitters in relief of game-one starter Aiden Jimenez, Kozeal racked up four RBI's on a double in the third inning and a two-run homer in the fifth. On Saturday against Creighton, Kozeal joined Wehiwa Aloy and Helfrick in taking Blue Jay pitches out of the yard in Baum Walker.
Kozeal, who is Arkansas' current runner up in RBI's on the season, started off the five-home-run hit parade with his 15th of the season. He later hit a clutch two-out double to drive in first baseman Reese Robinett to give Arkansas some much needed breathing room.
"Offensively we got some big hits — especially with two outs — that created a little bit of separation and kind of gave us a good ball game for us," Van Horn said. "Yeah that opposite field home run and double. We were maybe going to bunt or move him around but we took it off and then he hits a double. He’s swinging it really good right now. It kind of let us relax. We had a one-run lead and then we hit that home run and then all of a sudden it became 2-0."
"Little things stand out to me like Robinett beating that throw to second on the infield single. Then there was maybe we ... got hit by a pitch. All those little things add up."
Kozeal ended the weekend with his only single-hit game of the weekend against the depleted Blue Jays pitchers, but it was his ability to come through in key moments that gave him a hard-earned nod over the red-hot Helfrick.
Kozeal, who was a triple short of hitting for a cycle in game one, said afterwards that he's always happy to see the wind blowing the Razorbacks' way.
"That’s all external," he siad. "You can’t control that whether it’s a single, double, home run or a triple. You have to just go out there with a competitive mindset and just hit the ball hard.
"It was a good time for the team. We spent a lot of time together and I think we grew closer together. We went fishing a lot. We had great practices. It was just a great week of preparation. I’m glad we came out today and got a win. I don’t check the flags like that to see which way the wind is blowing but it was a fun day to be a hitter on those days."