Gabe Gaeckle’s stint at the 2025 College World Series was bittersweet.

While the Aptos High graduate pitched stellarly for the University of Arkansas at NCAA Division I’s championship baseball tournament in Omaha, Nebraska, he was unable to help the Razorbacks win a title.

“It definitely feels different,” Gaeckle said of pitching in the College World Series at a postgame press conference following his CWS debut. “There’s a lot more fans and we’re playing for something pretty important.”

Gaeckle struck out 10 batters in six innings of relief — both career highs — and issued no walks in Arkansas’ CWS opener on June 14 against Southeastern Conference rival Louisiana State. The sophomore right-hander also surrendered just one run — which LSU scored after he had left the game — and three hits.

“I just wanted to eat up some innings to save some guys because we’ve got a lot of games ahead of us,” Gaeckle said during the postgame press conference. (Gaeckle did not respond to multiple attempts to reach him by phone for comment.)

Unfortunately for Gaeckle, he didn’t get much offensive support. The Razorbacks pushed just one run across in falling to LSU 4-1.

The Razorbacks trailed 3-0 when Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn brought Gaeckle in from the bullpen in the bottom of the second inning.

“I just didn’t feel like we could let them score anymore,” Van Horn said in the postgame press conference. “I had a great pitcher in the bullpen who was hot, and I got him up because we saw what we saw — two walks, a hit by pitch, a hit or two — and the game was about to get out of hand.”

Even though Gaeckle didn’t get a win to show for his efforts, Van Horn was pleased with how the former first-team Freshman All-American performed on college baseball’s grandest stage.

“He did everything we were hoping he would do, and that’s hold down a really good lineup and give us a chance to chip away and get back in,” the Razorbacks coach said. “But (LSU’s) staff didn’t let us.”

Gaeckle also appeared in what proved to be Arkansas’ final game of the season, also against LSU: In three innings of relief on June 18, he struck out four batters, walked two and scattered four hits, but only allowed one run.

Again, however, things beyond Gaeckle’s control rendered his performance all for naught: The Tigers rallied for three runs against another reliever in the bottom of the ninth, earning a 6-5 walk-off win that ended the Razorbacks’ season.

Though he, Van Horn, and teammate Ryder Helfrick all stressed that their loss was a team loss, Gaeckle still blamed himself for his role in it during the postgame press conference.

“I messed up with two pitches, and a good team takes advantage of that,” Gaeckle said. “They got me with those two. Props to them — they’re a good team.”

Gaeckle began the season as a starter — in fact, he started Arkansas’ season opener against Washington State in February — and fared reasonably well, going 2-1 with 42 strikeouts 36 1/3 innings in his first nine appearances. After a disastrous outing on April 12 against Georgia in which he surrendered five runs in two innings, however, Gaeckle transitioned to a relief role.

As a reliever, Gaeckle posted a sparkling 1.97 earned run average in seven appearances, allowing just seven earned runs in 32 innings. He earned wins against Texas A&M and Florida in his first two relief appearances and posted a save against Tennessee — then the defending CWS champion — at the NCAA Super Regionals despite yielding a run in the ninth inning.

That save set the stage for Arkansas to sweep the Volunteers in two games and advance to the CWS.

Gaeckle finished the season with a 4-2 record, a 4.42 ERA and two saves, including one against Creighton at the NCAA Regionals on June 1. He struck out 92 batters in 71 1/3 innings.

Van Horn is looking forward to seeing what Gaeckle can do in his junior season — likely his final one before entering next year’s Major League Baseball draft. In fact, the Razorbacks coach considered sending Gaeckle out to pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning of the June 18 loss to LSU — Arkansas led 5-3 at the time.

But because Gaeckle had already thrown roughly 40 to 50 pitches in just three innings on short rest, Van Horn decided not to, believing it would jeopardize Gaeckle’s future.

“He would have gone back out,” Van Horn said. “If we’d just said, ‘Hey, you got another one in you?’ What else is he going to say? ‘Yeah, I’m good.’ We had to make that decision, and I’d make it again — it’s not fair to him.

“He gives us everything he has. He’s got a bright future.”