The Arkansas Razorbacks might have moved on if it hadn't been for the first inning.
The Diamond Hogs dropped their first and only game in the SEC Tournament 5-2 on Friday to the Ole Miss Rebels at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Alabama, who were powered by five runs before the Hogs even had a chance to bat.
Only one of those five runs was earned, as defensive miscues gave way to a three-run bomb by Ole Miss hitter Austin Fawley before the first inning ended. Those were the only runs the Rebels would score for the rest of the game.
Outside of that five-run first inning, the Rebels weren't able to push across any runs, thanks in large part to Arkansas' bullpen arms. The Razorbacks used three pitchers after starting lefty Zach Root left the game after four innings. He finished the day with seven hits allowed, five runs (one earned) and four strikeouts to two walks on 78 pitches.
"I thought Zach got a couple bad breaks in the first inning," Arkansas skipper Dave Van Horn said after the loss. "Spotted him five; felt like they'd have scored maybe one. We fielded the ball all year, and we've turned double plays, and we didn't do it today, and it cost us."
Sophomore right-hander Gabe Gaeckle relieved Root on the mound and got in three innings of work with just two hits and one walk to four strikeouts.
"Yeah, I thought he threw the ball extremely well," Van Horn said. "We could have left him out there. We just wanted to get (Gibler) in there for a little bit...We can use him in so many different roles, whether we finish a game with him, start him, long relief. He's such a good teammate, he doesn't care what he does."
Freshman lefty Cole Gibler took over in the eighth inning and also tallied four strikeouts across 1.2 innings. His outing was the latest in a string of solid performances, which suggests he'll likely be called upon more when the Hogs start NCAA Tournament play next weekend.
"Well, he's just grown up," Van Horn said of Gibler. "From when he walked in the door, he had a good arm, didn't command stuff great, then he'd have a good outing, then he'd have a bad outing, and this was in fall practice.
"Kind of pitched with an attitude almost too much, where I felt like if you pitch like that, you're going to be a one-inning max guy. You can be better than that. He really calmed it down, and his stuff is obviously really hard to hit...He is a big piece for our bullpen now."
After Gibler's outing ended, Christian Foutch entered the game and needed just three pitches to ring up Ole Miss infielder Judd Utermark.
"The positive for me today was Gaeckle and Gibler, and then Foutch coming in and getting one hitter," Van Horn said. "But Zach threw pretty good. He gave up some hits, but five runs, one run was earned. He should have been off the field pretty quickly a couple innings in, and who knows how the game would have turned out."
Van Horn said the message to the team now, with no games left to play before Selection Monday, is to clean up the miscues and not let them punish you in the postseason.
"The message in the outfield is that you learn from today's game," Van Horn said. "We let it slip a little bit in the first, and the pitchers did a great job of holding them down, giving us an opportunity, but Ole Miss's pitchers would have none of it. You know how a bad inning can finish you. All the games coming up are to the point now where you lose a couple, you're done.
"The message going forward is that we've got to tighten up as a group. We can't let that happen again, and we need to have a good week back in Fayetteville and get ready to go."
Despite the loss, Arkansas is still in a great position to host a regional and likely a Super Regional as a top-eight seed nationally. The Diamond Hogs will learn their overall seed and what their path to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, will look like on Monday.
