Arkansas fends off late Alabama rally in 5-3 win
Arkansas fended off a late rally from Alabama in a 5-3 Game 1 win over the Crimson Tide on Friday.
The No. 1 Arkansas Razorbacks (30-3, 12-1 SEC) won their 11th straight game with a 5-3 victory Friday over the No. 25 Alabama Crimson Tide (22-12, 4-9 SEC) at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The 12-1 start in conference play is the best in program history for the Diamond Hogs.
Arkansas ace Hagen Smith lowered his season ERA to 1.53 with six scoreless innings on the evening. The junior left-handed gave up just two hits while walking three and striking out six on 96 pitches.
"I thought I threw pretty well," Smith said postgame. "Defense played good behind me and offense scored a bunch of runs at the beginning of the game. I threw a lot more cutters today than sliders, so I think that kind of got them swinging. They had a really good approach against off speed, too. They didn’t swing at much off speed that was out of the zone, so you gotta give credit to them."
The Razorbacks got started early by plating three runs on back-to-back home run swings from Ben McLaughlin and Jared Sprague-Lott in the top of the first inning. Two more runs scored in the top of the third, and that was enough offense for the Hogs.
Alabama threatened by tagging Arkansas reliever Will McEntire with three runs in the bottom of the eighth, but electric freshman Gabe Gaeckle extinguished the fire and earned his SEC-best sixth save on the season.
"Obviously it got a little tight there in the last couple innings," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. "Give credit to Alabama. They made a run at us. We left a lot of runners nearly. Had a chance to kind of bust it open. But their pitching staff wiggled out of a couple jams and we kind of have to hold on."
Both teams had six hits apiece and the Crimson Tide actually had more hits with runners on (4) than the Hogs did (3). Arkansas was 0-2 at the plate in bases loaded situations, and it left nine total runners on base in the game.
Alabama ace Ben Hess threw 31 pitches in the top of the first after the Hogs strung together three-straight one-out hits, which included back-to-back homers from McLaughlin (two-runs) and Sprague-Lott (solo shot) to put the Hogs up 3-0 before Smith even took the mound. Smith began his outing with a 14-pitch first inning that was an efficient 1-2-3 frame for Arkansas' ace.
After issuing a leadoff walk in the top of the second, Hess sat the next three in a row down on strikes to strand the runner. The righty was at 49 pitches after two innings, though.
"It didn’t look like he was going to be out there very long because after the end of two he was right at like 49 pitches," Van Horn said. "Great job by our offense fouling off pitches and working to get something that they could handle."
Smith worked another three up, three down frame in the bottom half and added his second strikeout of the game.
Hess started the top of the third with two outs, but he then allowed the next three batters to reach base and the Hogs plated two more runs via a Hudson White RBI single and Kendall Diggs scoring via a wild pitch to make it a 5-0 lead for the Hogs.
Smith gave up his first baserunner with a one-out walk in the bottom half of the third, but the Hogs' left-handed star picked up two straight outs to get out of it quickly.
With his pitch count at 69 entering the top of the fourth, Hess put together a six-pitch frame that was much-needed for the Alabama starter. Smith led the bottom half with his second walk of the game, but kept his no-hitter going by retiring the next three to end the bottom of the fourth.
Hess ran into a bases loaded situation with two outs in the top of the fifth, but the Crimson Tide stuck with him despite his pitch count reaching 101 in the frame. The right-hander managed to get out of the jam and leave the bases loaded with his eighth strikeout of the game.
For the third inning in a row, Smith worked around a walk to retire the other three batters he faced in the frame in the bottom of the fifth to keep the Tide hitless.
Alabama turned to right-handed reliever Sam Mitchell in the top of the sixth, and he needed just six pitches to get three outs. The momentum carried over to the bottom half, as third baseman Gage Miller hit a leadoff single to end the no-hitter for Smith.
After giving up a one-out single to put two runners on, Smith retired the next two to strand the runners and get out of the frame with his pitch count at 96.
"When you have got 98 and you are running it under a lefty’s hands and then you’ve got an 87 slider, it’s tough," Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn said of smith. "There is a reason that is going to be a top five pick in the draft in July."
Arkansas loaded the bases via a trio of free passes issued by Mitchell in the top of the seventh. Making his first appearance in SEC play this season, Mitchell managed to leave the bases loaded and keep the deficit at 5-0 for the Crimson Tide despite a big swing from freshman Nolan Souza making it to the warning track for the third out.
The Razorbacks turned to McEntire in the bottom half of the seventh and "Iron Man" struck out two in a three up, three down frame.
After Alabama right-handed reliever Zane Probst pitched a perfect top half of the eighth in relief, the Crimson Tide finally plated a run after leading the bottom half off with three straight singles, the third of which was an RBI knock from Ian Petrutz.
A second straight RBI single chased McEntire and brought left-hander Stone Hewlett on with two on and one out. Hewlett issued a walk to load the bases and then gave up an RBI sacrifice fly that quickly made the Arkansas lead just two runs.
The Razorbacks turned to Gaeckle with one out and runners on the corners, and the freshman delivered two straight outs while sitting 95-96 miles per hour on the fastball.
Sprague-Lott reached third after a two-out single, a stolen base and an error, but he was stranded right away after a fly out by Kendall Diggs in the top of the ninth. Gaeckle trotted out in the bottom half and sat the Crimson Tide down in order to close things down.
"It’s tough winning," Van Horn said. "It’s tough winning on the road. We knew Alabama could really hit and we know we’re going to have to swing the bats a little bit better tomorrow."
Up next, the Razorbacks and Crimson Tide will face off again at 5 p.m. CT Saturday at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa. The game will be streamed live on SEC Network+.
