HawgBeat - Arkansas fends off Mississippi State to win series opener
HawgBeat provides a game recap and box score from Arkansas' 7-5 win over Mississippi State on Friday.
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — The No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks (41-9, 18-7 SEC) won a back-and-forth affair with a 7-5 victory Friday against the No. 14 Mississippi State Bulldogs (32-17, 14-11 SEC) at Baum-Walker Stadium.
After Mississippi State took a 5-4 lead over the Razorbacks in the top of the eighth, the Hogs responded with a three-run bottom of the eighth that featured big RBI knocks from shortstop Wehiwa Aloy and catcher Hudson White. Aloy had three hits and two runs scored in the game, while White added a pair of hits and four RBIs.
"Our pitching has been so good all year," Van Horn said. "We’ve talked about this, that this was going to happen and we would have to step up offensively and I thought we did a really good job tonight offensively."
Arkansas ace Hagen Smith gave up three earned runs — tied for the most he's allowed in a game this year — on four hits in five innings pitched. The junior left-hander walked four and struck out 11 batters on 94 total pitches.
"He just didn’t have the command that he normally does," Van Horn said. "We’ve kind of been waiting for it, honestly, because he’s been so good and so consistent. Maybe he’s got that behind him and he can move on now. He’s been better obviously, and he’s a lot better than that. But it was just that night and Mississippi State did a good job of fouling off some pitches and getting his count up."
Sophomore Gage Wood closed things down and picked up the save after inheriting a bases loaded situation with no outs before he left the them loaded in the top of the ninth to close things down.
The Razorbacks out-hit the Bulldogs, 10-7, in the game and overcame the fact that their pitchers issued nine walks compared to just one by Mississippi State. Third baseman Jared Sprague-Lott joined Aloy in the three-hit club, and Sprague-Lott also had a 421-foot homer in the contest.
Smith began his outing with back-to-back walks before he settled in with three straight strikeouts to strand two in the top of the first.
With Peyton Holt hitting leadoff followed by Peyton Stovall and Sprague-Lott, the Razorbacks went down in order in the bottom half of the first inning.
Following a 30-pitch top of the first, Smith needed just six pitches to get three outs in a row in the top of the second. The Hogs again had a 1-2-3 frame in the bottom of the second against Mississippi State starter Khal Stephen.
Smith worked around a pair of singles in the top of the third to strand the runners while also picking up two strikeouts to get his game total to six by that point. Arkansas wasted a leadoff single from freshman designated hitter Ryder Helfrick in the bottom of the third.
The Mississippi State bats went down in order in the top of the fourth, which featured two more punchouts for Smith. Arkansas managed to manufacture a run that scored via a wild pitch with two outs in the bottom of the fourth and catcher Hudson White followed that up with a 408-foot two-run homer that made it 3-0 after four innings.
After running into a bases loaded situation with two outs in the top of the fifth, Smith gave up a bases-clearing two-out double to right to Bulldogs' first baseman Hunter Hines that tied the game at 3-3. The Razorbacks couldn't respond, as they went down in order in the bottom half.
Arkansas went to right-hander Christian Foutch to start the top of the sixth and he needed just eight pitches to record his first three outs in a scoreless frame. Sprague-Lott torched a 421-foot one-out solo homer to left that gave the Razorbacks a 4-3 lead over the Bulldogs after six innings.
The Razorbacks went back to the bullpen with two runners on and one out in the top of the seventh as freshman right-hander Gabe Gaeckle relieved Foutch. Gaeckle was throwing heat and extinguished the fire by striking out Mississippi State sluggers Dakota Jordan and Hunter Hines back-to-back.
A scoreless bottom of the seventh by the Arkansas bats was followed by Gaeckle walking in the game tying run to make it 4-4 before the Bulldogs took a one-run lead on an RBI sacrifice fly out. Veteran righty relieved Gaeckle after the freshman loaded the bases again, and McEntire left them loaded with an inning-ending strikeout.
Mississippi State turned to right-handed reliever Tyson Hardin the bottom of the eighth and he gave up a pair of singles to Holt and Sprague-Lott before a one-out RBI single up the middle from Wehiwa Aloy tied things up at 5-5. The Hogs then took the lead via a two-RBI single to left from White that made it 7-5 after eight innings following a pair of outs.
McEntire took the mound in the top of the ninth and ran into a bases loaded situation with no outs before he was relieved by right-hander Gage Wood, who retired three in a row to close things down.
"What I saw was somebody that just went out there and competed and just seemed to enjoy being out there in that type of situation," Van Horn said. "I gave him the ball, I said, ‘Hey, bases loaded, no outs. Have fun’. I walked off. I just tried to loosen him up a little bit.
"He just threw that high-spin, carry fastball and got a pop up. I don’t know, a strikeout and another pop up. He didn’t even throw a breaking ball. He threw a couple changeups. Really proud of him just going in there and kind of taking the bull by the horn, so to speak. He said, okay, I’m the guy. I’m going to get it done, and he did."
Up next, the Razorbacks and Bulldogs will meet for Game 2 of the series at 6 p.m. CT Saturday at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. The game will be streamed live on SEC Network+.
Box Score
