HawgBeat - Arkansas takes series opener over Ole Miss, 5-2
The No. 1 Razorbacks extended their home winning streak to 19 games with a 5-2 win over Ole Miss on Thursday night.
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FAYETTEVILLE — The No. 1 Arkansas Razorbacks made it 19-straight home wins with a 5-2 series-opening victory over the Ole Miss Rebels (18-13, 3-7 SEC) in front of an announced 10,000-plus fans Thursday evening at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Arkansas ace Hagen Smith had to work through traffic on the bases for most of his outing, but he got through six innings on 105 pitches against the Rebels. The left-hander gave up two earned runs on four hits with a season-high four walks and 11 strikeouts in the contest.
"Just a little off mechanically, I felt like," Smith said postgame. "Just kind of pulling off my front side, kinda missing everywhere with my fastball but we came back and scored so it was awesome."
The Razorbacks chased Ole Miss starter Riley Maddox with a big three-run home run swing from shortstop Wehiwa Aloy that gave them a 4-2 lead, their first of the game, in the bottom of the sixth. Third baseman Jared Sprague-Lott also added a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth to cap off a big four-run inning that proved to be enough.
Veteran right-hander Will McEntire provided cleanup duty on the mound with 2.2 innings one-hit, scoreless ball with three strikeouts. Lefty-lefty specialists Stone Hewlett earned the final out to shut things down in the top of the ninth.
Arkansas had seven hits compared to Ole Miss' five in the game, but the Hogs were just 2-12 at the plate with runners on. The Rebels did strand nine runners compared to five by the Razorbacks.
"Good job by our guys," head coach Dave Van Horn said. "I told them, we were down. Didn’t panic. Smith got us through that third inning with only giving up a couple of runs. The difference between them scoring two and four, that was big that that didn’t happen, and then we came in and scratched across a run there in the fourth. Obviously, we felt like we were going to win the game. We just gotta keep it close, and we did."
In between a pair of first inning strikeouts, Smith caught a 101 mile per hour liner that was going straight for his head. Aside from the drama on that play, it was a rather easy 1-2-3 frame for the Arkansas ace.
Ole Miss starter Riley Maddox gave up a 106 mile per hour leadoff single to Peyton Stovall, but he managed to face the minimum after Wehiwa Aloy hit into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
Smith issued a one-out walk and hit by pitch against back-to-back batters, but the lefty still managed to strikeout the other three batters he faced in the frame to strand the runners and push his game total to five punchouts after just two innings.
The Rebels put together three straight singles with one out in the top of the third, and then Smith issued an RBI walk to bring the game's first run home. Ole Miss plated another run via an RBI sacrifice fly out, but that was all Smith allowed to keep the deficit at 2-0 for the Hogs.
It took Maddox just six pitches to take care of the Razorbacks in the bottom half of the third inning.
Smith picked up three more strikeouts in the top of the fourth for Arkansas, but he also gave up a leadoff single and two-out walk, and it took him 23 pitches to get through the frame.
Arkansas put a pair of one-out runners on in the bottom of the fourth, and following a wild pitch that put both in scoring position, Jared Sprague-Lott hit an RBI groundout to short that scored Wehiwa Aloy to cut the deficit to 2-1 after four innings.
With his pitch count at 82, Smith returned to the mound in the top of the fifth and went three up, three down on just eight pitches. Maddox countered with his second true 1-2-3 frame of the game in the bottom half.
Smith trotted out again in the top of the sixth and he stranded a leadoff walk by retiring three in a row, two of which went down on strikes to get his game total to double-digits for the sixth time on the year.
"I just felt like when Hagen came out in the sixth and we were down a run, and he got through the sixth, I think it really motivated our team," Van Horn said. "It was just a 15-, 16-pitch inning and we came in and we got two walks and a home run and we had the lead. It was just big. It’s like he saved our bullpen if we didn’t come back and win but he just did a tremendous job fighting."
After Maddox issued a pair of walks to leadoff the bottom of the sixth, Aloy took him 347 feet to right for a laser of a go-ahead three-run shot that made it a 4-2 Arkansas lead and chased the Ole Miss starter to bring in relief pitcher Josh Mallitz.
"My approach was just to stiff the middle more because prior to that, I was pulling off the ball and everything was going to left field," Aloy said postgame. "Staying up the middle pretty much helped me get through that ball."
The Razorbacks tagged Mallitz for a run in the form of a 342-foot homer that Sprague-Lott just snuck inside the foul pole in left field to make the lead 5-2 for the Hogs after six full innings.
In relief of Smith, McEntire worked around a one-out walk by retiring three of the four batters he faced in the top half of the seventh inning. Right-hander Brayden Jones pitched the bottom of the seventh for Ole Miss and had the same outcome as McEntire — he worked around a one-out walk to face one one more than the minimum.
After the relief duo of McEntire and Jones both pitched 1-2-3 frames in the eighth, "Iron Man" Will McEntire returned to the mound in the top of the ninth for the Hogs and picked up two outs before he was relieved by lefty Stone Hewlett following a two-out single. The transfer from Kansas picked up a strikeout to finish the game out.
Up next, the Razorbacks and Rebels will meet for Game 2 of the series at 6:30 p.m. CT Friday at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. The game will be streamed live on SEC Network+.
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