OMAHA, Neb. — Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn had seen this before.

The Razorbacks’ 4-3 College World Series victory over Virginia in 12 innings Wednesday night — after they were down to their last strike in the ninth — was another in a line of comebacks the Hogs have pulled off this season.
None was bigger than this, though.
The Hogs stayed alive and now play LSU on Friday needing to win that game and another Saturday to reach next week’s best-of-three finals.
“We’re fighting for our lives, like we have been all season,” Van Horn said.
Arkansas got a tying home run from Brett Eibner in the ninth inning, the go-ahead double from Andrew Darr in the top of the 12th and clutch pitching from Dallas Keuchel for the final four innings.
As the game unfolded, Van Horn said he couldn’t help but reminisce about other late-game rallies this season.
There was a March game against California when the Hogs scored twice in the ninth to tie and won 5-4 in the 10th. In April, the Hogs went to the bottom of the 10th down by a run against Louisiana-Monroe but scored twice to win 10-9. A couple weeks later they tied Oklahoma with two runs in the ninth before Eibner hit a game-winning homer in the 10th.
“What you saw today from our team, we’ve been doing it all year,” Van Horn said.
Eibner’s two-out, two-run homer off Virginia closer Kevin Arico in the top of the ninth tied it at 3, and Keuchel put a runner on third base in each of the last four innings but escaped each time. Keuchel, the usual No. 1 starter, made his first relief appearance of the season for Arkansas (41-23).
Virginia (49-15-1) was eliminated after going 1-2 in its first Omaha appearance.
Play resumes in Bracket 2 on Thursday night with Arizona State (50-13) and North Carolina (48-17) playing an elimination game.
Darr hung in for nine pitches against Andrew Carraway (9-2) before drilling a grounder down the third-base line to score Jarrod McKinney from second. Darr also hit a two-run double to win the Super Regional over Florida State two weeks ago.
“There’s definitely confidence from having done it before,” Darr said. “I was just trying to have a good at-bat. McKinney was at second, and he can fly. I got a breaking ball to hit and got a good swing.”
In the ninth, Keuchel (9-3) fell behind Danny Hultzen 3-0 with the bases loaded before getting a hard grounder to short. Tim Carver bobbled the ball but was able to flip to second, and Bo Bigham’s throw to first got Hultzen by a step to complete the double play.
In the following inning, Keuchel struck out Jarrett Parker and John Hicks after Shane Halley made it to third.
In the 11th, Keuchel induced Dan Grovatt’s groundout to strand Franco Valdes.
Steven Proscia led off the 12th with a double and stole third with one out. But Keuchel struck out Hicks and Valdes, with Arkansas catcher Ryan Cisterna throwing to first to get Valdes on a dropped third strike to end the game.
“I was just telling myself out there that we’ve been through so much, this whole team, and I wasn’t going to let them go out with that,” Keuchel said. “I kept throwing that slider up there and got some swings and misses.”
Virginia limited Arkansas to five hits through eight innings, and the Hogs were down to their last strike after closer Kevin Arico came on and got two groundouts to start the ninth.
Zack Cox singled up the middle on a 1-2 pitch, and Eibner followed with his shot that came down halfway up the left-field seats to tie it 3-all.
The homer made the Cavaliers regret running themselves out of a couple innings. In Virginia’s two-run fifth, Tyler Cannon got caught trying to stretch a base hit into a double. In the eighth, Proscia overran third and was thrown out in a rundown.
“We had an opportunity every inning, from the bottom of the ninth all the way to the end,” Grovatt said. “We just didn’t come up with the big hit and Arkansas did. It was one of those games where that kid had a great at-bat and got the big hit.”