The No. 3 Arkansas baseball team (17-2, 1-1 SEC) evened up its Southeastern Conference opening series Saturday with a 12-3 win over the No. 13 Ole Miss Rebels (15-3, 1-1 SEC) at Swayze Field in Oxford, Mississippi.
With the win, Dave Van Horn now has 900 as head coach of the Razorbacks. His 1,484 career wins are second most among all active Division I head coaches and he is the second-winningest coach in Arkansas history behind Norm DeBryin (1,161 wins with the Hogs).
Arkansas starting pitcher Gabe Gaeckle struggled out of the gate, but settled in as the innings went by and ended up turning in a solid performance. He finished his outing with eight strikeouts, three walks, one hit and two earned runs in 4.0 innings pitched.
Two pitchers — lefty Parker Coil and righty Aiden Jimenez — combined for 5.0 innings of relief for Gaeckle, and they helped hold the Rebels' offense to a 4-for-32 day at the plate with 18 strikeouts.
Hogs' leadoff man Charles Davalan went 4-for-6 at the plate with three RBIs and a homerun. Wehiwa and Kuhio Aloy, Logan Maxwell and Nolan Souza added long balls, while Cam Kozeal racked up three hits and an RBI.
Arkansas took its first lead of the weekend in the top of the first, 1-0, thanks to a sacrifice fly by Brent Iredale. Charles Davalan led the inning off with a single and he came around to score on the play.
Gaeckle, who has struggled some in first innings this season, continued that trend with two allowed runs against the Rebels in their first time up to the plate. It could've been much worse for the righty, as he escaped a bases-loaded jam on a double play.
Both starters, Ole Miss' Riley Maddox and Gaeckle, responded with hitless frames in the second inning. Gaeckle notched his third and fourth strikeout in the process, as well.
The Razorbacks were unable to strike in the third despite getting their first two baserunners on and then loading the bases, but Gaeckle kept the Rebels quiet with two more punchouts sandwiched around a Cam Kozeal error.
Offense was hard to come by in the fourth, as both pitchers faced the minimum and combined for three strikeouts — including two more for Gaeckle to up his total to eight.
The dam finally broke in the top of the fifth for the Razorbacks. 9-hole Justin Thomas Jr. reached base via a single to leadoff, then Davalan grabbed a 3-2 for the Hogs on a bomb to right field. Following an Ole Miss pitching change to RHP Will McCausland, both Wehiwa and Kuhio Aloy sent moonshots over the outfield wall to increase the Arkansas advantage to 5-2.
Rocco Peppi picked up his first hit of the day, an RBI single through the left side that forced another pitching change, this time to lefty Ryne Rodriguez. Rodriguez promptly gave up a double to Kozeal to plate another run. Two more runs crossed home plate before the Hogs were finally retired, now up 9-2.
Gaeckle's day came to an end in the fifth, as lefty Parker Coil came on in relief. The southpaw got tagged with two singles, but stranded both with a strikeout to end the inning.
After an unproductive top of the sixth for Arkansas, Coil collected three more strikeouts, but did give up a solo homer to make the score 9-3, Razorbacks.
Arkansas replaced Coil with right-hander Aiden Jimenez in the bottom of the seventh, and the former Oregon State transfer struck out two in his debut frame.
Ole Miss ran out right-hander Landon Waters again in the eighth, and all he did was strike out Wehiwa Aloy, Kuhio Aloy and Brent Iredale in 1-2-3 fashion. Jimenez capped off the inning with his third and fourth strikeouts.
With five straight offensive strikeouts, it seemed as if Arkansas' offense had fallen asleep. That is, until Maxwell and pinch-hitter Nolan Souza led off the ninth with back-to-back right-field home runs. Davalan drove in one more two-out run on a single to increase the lead to 12-3.
Jimenez slammed the door shut in the bottom of the ninth with two strikeouts and a fly out.
Up next, Arkansas and Ole Miss will meet again at Swayze Field in Oxford, Mississippi, for Game 3 of the three-game series Sunday. First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m. CT and the game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
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