Lots of good stuff in here from today's doubleheader...
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — It required a doubleheader sweep, but Arkansas still hasn’t had a losing weekend in the regular season since before the pandemic.
After a disastrous inning led to a loss in the opening game of the series, the Razorbacks bounced back with 4-2 and 11-1 wins over Southeastern Louisiana at Baum-Walker Stadium on Saturday.
They needed a seventh-inning home run from Michael Turner to win Game 1 of the doubleheader and then exploded for eight runs in the final two innings of Game 2 to pull away for a run-rule victory.
“Just a really good bounce-back day after a tough loss yesterday to a scrappy team,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “They fought us really. They fought us hard. We didn’t play great yesterday. We played solid baseball today.”
It’s the second time this season that Arkansas dropped a Friday game only to win the next two to take the series. The Razorbacks also needed to beat Louisiana-Lafayette in the third game of the Round Rock Classic to win two of three that weekend.
Not including the postseason, Arkansas has now strung together 18 consecutive winning weekends. The last time it failed to win at least two of three was at the 2020 Shriners College Classic, when it was swept by three difference opponents.
“Obviously we wanted to win this series,” Van Horn said. “We talked about it between games, that this is a big game. We want to win the series and our guys responded.”
Here’s a quick recap of both games, as well as some key takeaways from Saturday’s doubleheader…
Game 1: Arkansas 4, Southeastern Louisiana 2
With Hagen Smith in control of things on the mound, the Razorbacks just needed to figure out a way to scratch across some runs and did so with some clutch two-out hitting.
A pair of free passes — Zack Gregory walked and Cayden Wallace was hit by a pitch — with two outs set the stage for an RBI double by Michael Turner that started the scoring in the third.
Arkansas nearly replicated that exact scenario the following inning, but Chris Lanzilli was plunked with one out before a two-out walk by Jalen Battles set up an RBI single by Peyton Stovall that made it 2-0.
It seemed like that might be enough offense because Smith retired all but five of the first 21 batters he faced. However, the 22nd batter was Preston Faulkner and he launched a two-run home run to left-center that tied the game.
Turner provided the game-winning hit when he hit a line drive that left his bat at 106 mph and went 351 feet, clearing the right field fence for a two-run bomb of his own.
“He started me off 1-0 and I know he wasn’t wanting to get behind,” Turner said. “I was looking fastball and he gave me one I could handle and put a good swing on.”
Game 2: Arkansas 11, Southeastern Louisiana 1 (8 innings)
One of Van Horn’s biggest complaints about the series-opening loss was that Arkansas’ leadoff man reached in three innings, but failed to score each time.
The Razorbacks failed to score the lone time their leadoff man reached in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader, but they went 4 for 4 in those scenarios in the finale.
“(That) was huge,” Van Horn said. “To be able to get the lead runner on, advance him and then drive him in, it was big.”
It started in the second inning, when Robert Moore hit a leadoff single and moved to second on a balk before scoring on Kendall Diggs’ two-out RBI single.
In the fourth and sixth innings, a leadoff walk by Turner and leadoff double by Moore turned into runs thanks to RBI hits by Chris Lanzilli and Jace Bohrofen, respectively.
Sandwiched between those runs, the Lions scored their lone run of the game with a leadoff home run by Evan Keller in the sixth inning.
Battles ripped a double into the left-center gap to start the seventh inning and scored when Brady Slavens followed with a pinch-hit RBI single. That sparked the first of back-to-back four-run innings by the Razorbacks.
The highlight of that stretch was a bases-loaded triple by Bohrofen, who then scored on a wild pitch to invoke the run-rule.
“That was good (and) just shows our fight as an offense as a whole,” Bohrofen said of the outburst. “Guys putting together a lot of good at bats and a lot of good things happen when that clicks.”
Starters Shine
Both of Arkansas’ starting pitchers in the doubleheader turned in quality starts.
Smith set the tone for the day by retiring the first six batters he faced on just 22 pitches, sitting 92-94 mph and touching 95 in the process.
Although he struggled with his command in the fourth inning, the talented left-hander settled in after a mound visit from pitching coach Matt Hobbs and ended up making it through seven innings on 97 pitches.
The only blip on the radar was Faulkner’s aforementioned home run. In fact, that was one of just two hits Smith allowed and it resulted in the only two earned runs he was charged with. He also issued three walks and had one HBP while striking out nine.
“My fastball and my cutter (were working),” Smith said. “I was just trying to throw it inside with my fastball and it worked out.”
Getting the nod in the finale, Jaxon Wiggins wasn’t quite as sharp in the early innings. Van Horn said it looked like he might just have to rely on his fastball once again based on how he looked in the first inning, but his changeup and slider eventually started working and he ended up getting better as the game went on.
For the third straight weekend, the sophomore right-hander set a career high for innings pitched by lasting 6 1/3 innings. Despite working further into games, Wiggins hasn’t lost much velocity on his fastball.
“He doesn’t really lose anything off his fastball,” Van Horn said. “He’s still pumping it. You can look at that board all you want. We’ve looked at our TrackMan stuff and he was anywhere from 94-97, touching maybe a little more, but (that) last inning he was 95-96.”
Wiggins finished with a career-high seven strikeouts while scattering two hits and four walks.
“He’s fun to play behind,” Turner said. “If they make contact, it’s usually not put in play that hard. I thought he attacked early and got ahead of guys. I think this is as far as he’s gone into a game this year. It was fun to watch.”
Throw in senior Connor Noland on Friday and the Razorbacks got solid starting pitching all weekend. Noland worked into the sixth, going 5 1/3 innings, while Smith went seven and Wiggins went 6 1/3.
“We wanted them all to get 85 pitches maybe at a minimum if possible to start getting them built up to get to around 90-95, depending on the weather or if it was an easy 90 (pitches),” Van Horn said. “It was really good to see those three guys give us some innings and let us kind of set some things up with some relievers.”
Through three weeks, Arkansas’ weekend rotation has a combined 2.94 ERA and 1.18 WHIP with 53 strikeouts and only 18 walks in 49 innings.
(Story continues below)
HawgBeat - Key takeaways, box scores from Arkansas' doubleheader sweep of SELA
HawgBeat brings you several key takeaways from Arkansas' doubleheader sweep of Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday.
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — It required a doubleheader sweep, but Arkansas still hasn’t had a losing weekend in the regular season since before the pandemic.
After a disastrous inning led to a loss in the opening game of the series, the Razorbacks bounced back with 4-2 and 11-1 wins over Southeastern Louisiana at Baum-Walker Stadium on Saturday.
They needed a seventh-inning home run from Michael Turner to win Game 1 of the doubleheader and then exploded for eight runs in the final two innings of Game 2 to pull away for a run-rule victory.
“Just a really good bounce-back day after a tough loss yesterday to a scrappy team,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “They fought us really. They fought us hard. We didn’t play great yesterday. We played solid baseball today.”
It’s the second time this season that Arkansas dropped a Friday game only to win the next two to take the series. The Razorbacks also needed to beat Louisiana-Lafayette in the third game of the Round Rock Classic to win two of three that weekend.
Not including the postseason, Arkansas has now strung together 18 consecutive winning weekends. The last time it failed to win at least two of three was at the 2020 Shriners College Classic, when it was swept by three difference opponents.
“Obviously we wanted to win this series,” Van Horn said. “We talked about it between games, that this is a big game. We want to win the series and our guys responded.”
Here’s a quick recap of both games, as well as some key takeaways from Saturday’s doubleheader…
Game 1: Arkansas 4, Southeastern Louisiana 2
With Hagen Smith in control of things on the mound, the Razorbacks just needed to figure out a way to scratch across some runs and did so with some clutch two-out hitting.
A pair of free passes — Zack Gregory walked and Cayden Wallace was hit by a pitch — with two outs set the stage for an RBI double by Michael Turner that started the scoring in the third.
Arkansas nearly replicated that exact scenario the following inning, but Chris Lanzilli was plunked with one out before a two-out walk by Jalen Battles set up an RBI single by Peyton Stovall that made it 2-0.
It seemed like that might be enough offense because Smith retired all but five of the first 21 batters he faced. However, the 22nd batter was Preston Faulkner and he launched a two-run home run to left-center that tied the game.
Turner provided the game-winning hit when he hit a line drive that left his bat at 106 mph and went 351 feet, clearing the right field fence for a two-run bomb of his own.
“He started me off 1-0 and I know he wasn’t wanting to get behind,” Turner said. “I was looking fastball and he gave me one I could handle and put a good swing on.”
Game 2: Arkansas 11, Southeastern Louisiana 1 (8 innings)
One of Van Horn’s biggest complaints about the series-opening loss was that Arkansas’ leadoff man reached in three innings, but failed to score each time.
The Razorbacks failed to score the lone time their leadoff man reached in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader, but they went 4 for 4 in those scenarios in the finale.
“(That) was huge,” Van Horn said. “To be able to get the lead runner on, advance him and then drive him in, it was big.”
It started in the second inning, when Robert Moore hit a leadoff single and moved to second on a balk before scoring on Kendall Diggs’ two-out RBI single.
In the fourth and sixth innings, a leadoff walk by Turner and leadoff double by Moore turned into runs thanks to RBI hits by Chris Lanzilli and Jace Bohrofen, respectively.
Sandwiched between those runs, the Lions scored their lone run of the game with a leadoff home run by Evan Keller in the sixth inning.
Battles ripped a double into the left-center gap to start the seventh inning and scored when Brady Slavens followed with a pinch-hit RBI single. That sparked the first of back-to-back four-run innings by the Razorbacks.
The highlight of that stretch was a bases-loaded triple by Bohrofen, who then scored on a wild pitch to invoke the run-rule.
“That was good (and) just shows our fight as an offense as a whole,” Bohrofen said of the outburst. “Guys putting together a lot of good at bats and a lot of good things happen when that clicks.”
Starters Shine
Both of Arkansas’ starting pitchers in the doubleheader turned in quality starts.
Smith set the tone for the day by retiring the first six batters he faced on just 22 pitches, sitting 92-94 mph and touching 95 in the process.
Although he struggled with his command in the fourth inning, the talented left-hander settled in after a mound visit from pitching coach Matt Hobbs and ended up making it through seven innings on 97 pitches.
The only blip on the radar was Faulkner’s aforementioned home run. In fact, that was one of just two hits Smith allowed and it resulted in the only two earned runs he was charged with. He also issued three walks and had one HBP while striking out nine.
“My fastball and my cutter (were working),” Smith said. “I was just trying to throw it inside with my fastball and it worked out.”
Getting the nod in the finale, Jaxon Wiggins wasn’t quite as sharp in the early innings. Van Horn said it looked like he might just have to rely on his fastball once again based on how he looked in the first inning, but his changeup and slider eventually started working and he ended up getting better as the game went on.
For the third straight weekend, the sophomore right-hander set a career high for innings pitched by lasting 6 1/3 innings. Despite working further into games, Wiggins hasn’t lost much velocity on his fastball.
“He doesn’t really lose anything off his fastball,” Van Horn said. “He’s still pumping it. You can look at that board all you want. We’ve looked at our TrackMan stuff and he was anywhere from 94-97, touching maybe a little more, but (that) last inning he was 95-96.”
Wiggins finished with a career-high seven strikeouts while scattering two hits and four walks.
“He’s fun to play behind,” Turner said. “If they make contact, it’s usually not put in play that hard. I thought he attacked early and got ahead of guys. I think this is as far as he’s gone into a game this year. It was fun to watch.”
Throw in senior Connor Noland on Friday and the Razorbacks got solid starting pitching all weekend. Noland worked into the sixth, going 5 1/3 innings, while Smith went seven and Wiggins went 6 1/3.
“We wanted them all to get 85 pitches maybe at a minimum if possible to start getting them built up to get to around 90-95, depending on the weather or if it was an easy 90 (pitches),” Van Horn said. “It was really good to see those three guys give us some innings and let us kind of set some things up with some relievers.”
Through three weeks, Arkansas’ weekend rotation has a combined 2.94 ERA and 1.18 WHIP with 53 strikeouts and only 18 walks in 49 innings.
(Story continues below)
