Here's how it all went down, including some comments from DVH...
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — It took 12 innings, but Mississippi State finally got the big hit that had eluded Arkansas for much of Sunday’s game and salvaged a Game 3 victory.
Two-out RBI singles by Luke Hancock and Logan Tanner broke a tie that had lasted since the sixth to lift the Bulldogs to a 5-3 win over the Razorbacks at Baum-Walker Stadium.
While Arkansas had already clinched the series with wins in the first two games, the loss snapped an eight-game winning streak over Mississippi State and prevented a second SEC sweep in the first three weekends of conference play.
Those game winning hits in the 12th were set up by a pair of free passes, as Kole Ramage plunked Tanner Leggett with one out and then threw four straight balls to walk Kamren James with two outs.
Despite having three different relievers warmed up in the bullpen, Dave Van Horn stuck with Ramage — who has now appeared in four of Arkansas’ five losses this season — and the super senior promptly gave up the game-deciding hits in a span of back-to-back pitches.
“I don’t know what to tell you on that,” Van Horn said of the decision to stick with Ramage. “Yeah, we had guys warming up, but he was the guy. He needed to get those guys out.”
For Arkansas, it was a disappointing finish to what had been an uncharacteristic Game 3 of a series. Both starting pitchers were effective — aside from each giving up two solo home runs — for five innings and the bullpens combined to give up just two runs over the next six innings.
The Razorbacks squandered a couple of chances to end it before Ramage unraveled in the 12th, though. In fact, it looked like they might have won the game in the inning before.
With runners on first and second and only one out, Peyton Stovall crushed a line drive that seemed destined to give him his first hit of the weekend in walk-off fashion, but the first baseman, Hancock, snagged it and doubled up Jalen Battles at second to end the inning.
“Kind of the luck of the game in the 11th,” Van Horn said. “We line into a double play when it looks like when it leaves the bat it’s for sure a base hit. We thought it was going to rise a little bit, but it didn’t and the first baseman made a nice play.”
That was the third time in a span of four innings that Arkansas stranded the winning run in scoring position.
In the eighth, the Razorbacks got a leadoff single from Michael Turner and used a sacrifice bunt to move him to second, but Robert Moore popped out in the infield and Braydon Webb struck out looking.
With a chance to walk it off in the ninth, Arkansas actually loaded the bases with one out. However, Mississippi State brought in Jackson Fristoe out of the bullpen and he struck out Stovall and Turner to send the game to extras.
“I thought we put ourselves in position to win three or four times,” Van Horn said. “We just didn’t drive in a run. You’ve got to give credit to their pitchers for that. … It’s just disappointing we couldn’t get that thing done maybe in the ninth.”
Here are some other key takeaways from Sunday’s series finale…
Phenomenal Outing by Tygart
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the loss was the fact that a phenomenal relief outing by Brady Tygart went for naught.
The freshman right-hander entered the game at the beginning of the eighth inning and proceeded to strike out the first six batters he faced, which included the heart of the Mississippi State lineup.
“His breaking ball was working for him,” Van Horn said. “His curveball was really good. He actually threw a slider — got a strikeout on a slider — and his velocity was really good. … He was throwing a lot of strikes and getting them out. That’s what he does.”
He did eventually give up a base runner, but Tygart worked around a leadoff single in the 10th by getting back-to-back ground outs from the Bulldogs’ first two hitters in their lineup.
In his final inning, Tygart issued a one-out walk and hit a guy with a pitch with two outs, prompting Van Horn to bring in Ramage, who ended the inning with a strikeout.
“Tygart was outstanding,” Van Horn said. “Just felt like it was time to get him out. That was enough pitches. I think he ran out of gas there at the end anyway.”
That gave the freshman 3 2/3 scoreless innings in which he had a career-high seven strikeouts. The performance lowered his season ERA to 1.20 and he now has 22 strikeouts in 15 innings across eight appearances.
Sunday Pitchers’ Duel
Most college pitching staffs are scraping the bottom of the barrel by Game 3 of a series, but Arkansas and Mississippi State trotted out pitchers who don’t fit the typical profile of Sunday starters.
Sophomore Jaxon Wiggins got the nod for the Razorbacks and seemed to have his best velocity of the year. His fastball sat in the upper-90s and he even touched 99 mph in the first inning.
The only blemishes in his five innings of work came on solo home runs by Hancock and RJ Yeager in the first and third innings, respectively. Those were two of the four hits he allowed while walking one and striking out five.
Despite being at just 80 pitches and throwing 109 the previous week, Wiggins did not come out to pitch the sixth inning. Van Horn said the hard-throwing right-hander didn’t seem to have his best stuff and couldn’t command his off-speed pitches.
“I think he was up to about 80 pitches and we just didn’t feel like he had the command that he needed to have,” Van Horn said. “He just seemed to be fighting himself. Coach (Matt) Hobbs asked him when he went out to the mound in his last inning how he felt and I think the wording might have been, ‘I’m okay.’ Normally it’s better than that, so that was a hint right there.”
On the other side, sophomore Cade Smith also went five innings for the Bulldogs. He struck out the first four batters he faced with a fastball in the mid-90s and a nasty breaking ball.
It wasn’t until a leadoff home run by Zack Gregory in the third inning that Arkansas got a hit off the right-hander. The Razorbacks’ second hit of the game was also a long ball off Smith, as Webb crushed a solo home run into the Hog Pen with one out in the fourth.
Considering he was at 88 pitches already, Smith’s day was likely done after the fifth inning anyways, but it definitely was after a chopper by Turner hit him in the face on what proved to be the final out because the catcher tracked it down and threw him out at first.
Smith was charged with two earned runs on three hits and three walks while striking out six in his five innings of work.
Excluding the solo home runs, the two starting pitchers limited the offenses to an .094 batting average and combined for 11 strikeouts over the first five innings of the game.
(Story continues below)
HawgBeat - Key takeaways, box score from Arkansas' Game 3 loss to Mississippi State
HawgBeat brings you the key takeaways from Sunday's 12-inning loss to Mississippi State.
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — It took 12 innings, but Mississippi State finally got the big hit that had eluded Arkansas for much of Sunday’s game and salvaged a Game 3 victory.
Two-out RBI singles by Luke Hancock and Logan Tanner broke a tie that had lasted since the sixth to lift the Bulldogs to a 5-3 win over the Razorbacks at Baum-Walker Stadium.
While Arkansas had already clinched the series with wins in the first two games, the loss snapped an eight-game winning streak over Mississippi State and prevented a second SEC sweep in the first three weekends of conference play.
Those game winning hits in the 12th were set up by a pair of free passes, as Kole Ramage plunked Tanner Leggett with one out and then threw four straight balls to walk Kamren James with two outs.
Despite having three different relievers warmed up in the bullpen, Dave Van Horn stuck with Ramage — who has now appeared in four of Arkansas’ five losses this season — and the super senior promptly gave up the game-deciding hits in a span of back-to-back pitches.
“I don’t know what to tell you on that,” Van Horn said of the decision to stick with Ramage. “Yeah, we had guys warming up, but he was the guy. He needed to get those guys out.”
For Arkansas, it was a disappointing finish to what had been an uncharacteristic Game 3 of a series. Both starting pitchers were effective — aside from each giving up two solo home runs — for five innings and the bullpens combined to give up just two runs over the next six innings.
The Razorbacks squandered a couple of chances to end it before Ramage unraveled in the 12th, though. In fact, it looked like they might have won the game in the inning before.
With runners on first and second and only one out, Peyton Stovall crushed a line drive that seemed destined to give him his first hit of the weekend in walk-off fashion, but the first baseman, Hancock, snagged it and doubled up Jalen Battles at second to end the inning.
“Kind of the luck of the game in the 11th,” Van Horn said. “We line into a double play when it looks like when it leaves the bat it’s for sure a base hit. We thought it was going to rise a little bit, but it didn’t and the first baseman made a nice play.”
That was the third time in a span of four innings that Arkansas stranded the winning run in scoring position.
In the eighth, the Razorbacks got a leadoff single from Michael Turner and used a sacrifice bunt to move him to second, but Robert Moore popped out in the infield and Braydon Webb struck out looking.
With a chance to walk it off in the ninth, Arkansas actually loaded the bases with one out. However, Mississippi State brought in Jackson Fristoe out of the bullpen and he struck out Stovall and Turner to send the game to extras.
“I thought we put ourselves in position to win three or four times,” Van Horn said. “We just didn’t drive in a run. You’ve got to give credit to their pitchers for that. … It’s just disappointing we couldn’t get that thing done maybe in the ninth.”
Here are some other key takeaways from Sunday’s series finale…
Phenomenal Outing by Tygart
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the loss was the fact that a phenomenal relief outing by Brady Tygart went for naught.
The freshman right-hander entered the game at the beginning of the eighth inning and proceeded to strike out the first six batters he faced, which included the heart of the Mississippi State lineup.
“His breaking ball was working for him,” Van Horn said. “His curveball was really good. He actually threw a slider — got a strikeout on a slider — and his velocity was really good. … He was throwing a lot of strikes and getting them out. That’s what he does.”
He did eventually give up a base runner, but Tygart worked around a leadoff single in the 10th by getting back-to-back ground outs from the Bulldogs’ first two hitters in their lineup.
In his final inning, Tygart issued a one-out walk and hit a guy with a pitch with two outs, prompting Van Horn to bring in Ramage, who ended the inning with a strikeout.
“Tygart was outstanding,” Van Horn said. “Just felt like it was time to get him out. That was enough pitches. I think he ran out of gas there at the end anyway.”
That gave the freshman 3 2/3 scoreless innings in which he had a career-high seven strikeouts. The performance lowered his season ERA to 1.20 and he now has 22 strikeouts in 15 innings across eight appearances.
Sunday Pitchers’ Duel
Most college pitching staffs are scraping the bottom of the barrel by Game 3 of a series, but Arkansas and Mississippi State trotted out pitchers who don’t fit the typical profile of Sunday starters.
Sophomore Jaxon Wiggins got the nod for the Razorbacks and seemed to have his best velocity of the year. His fastball sat in the upper-90s and he even touched 99 mph in the first inning.
The only blemishes in his five innings of work came on solo home runs by Hancock and RJ Yeager in the first and third innings, respectively. Those were two of the four hits he allowed while walking one and striking out five.
Despite being at just 80 pitches and throwing 109 the previous week, Wiggins did not come out to pitch the sixth inning. Van Horn said the hard-throwing right-hander didn’t seem to have his best stuff and couldn’t command his off-speed pitches.
“I think he was up to about 80 pitches and we just didn’t feel like he had the command that he needed to have,” Van Horn said. “He just seemed to be fighting himself. Coach (Matt) Hobbs asked him when he went out to the mound in his last inning how he felt and I think the wording might have been, ‘I’m okay.’ Normally it’s better than that, so that was a hint right there.”
On the other side, sophomore Cade Smith also went five innings for the Bulldogs. He struck out the first four batters he faced with a fastball in the mid-90s and a nasty breaking ball.
It wasn’t until a leadoff home run by Zack Gregory in the third inning that Arkansas got a hit off the right-hander. The Razorbacks’ second hit of the game was also a long ball off Smith, as Webb crushed a solo home run into the Hog Pen with one out in the fourth.
Considering he was at 88 pitches already, Smith’s day was likely done after the fifth inning anyways, but it definitely was after a chopper by Turner hit him in the face on what proved to be the final out because the catcher tracked it down and threw him out at first.
Smith was charged with two earned runs on three hits and three walks while striking out six in his five innings of work.
Excluding the solo home runs, the two starting pitchers limited the offenses to an .094 batting average and combined for 11 strikeouts over the first five innings of the game.
(Story continues below)
