Arkansas drops Sunday game to James Madison, 7-3
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FAYETTEVILLE — The No. 3 Arkansas Razorbacks (2-1) suffered their first setback of the young season with a 7-3 loss to James Madison (1-2) on an otherwise beautiful Sunday afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Arkansas had eight of its nine batters record a hit Sunday and the Hogs were out-hitting the Dukes for a majority of the game, but it ended up being an even split at 10 hits each. It was the effort of JMU right-handed relieve Joe Vogatsky that pushed it over the top, as he tossed 4 1/3 innings of two-hit, one-run ball while striking out four and walking three.
"We've got to do a better job of producing some runs when we have opportunities," head coach Dave Van Horn said postgame. "We created a couple of innings and then we didn’t come through. Give credit to them. They just played better than us today and they deserve to win."
Texas Tech transfer left-hander Mason Molina struck out nine batters across 3 2/3 innings of work, but he was tagged for two earned runs near the end of his outing before he was relieved in the top of the fourth.
The Razorbacks saw freshmen right-handers Gabe Gaeckle and Tate McGuire make their college baseball debuts Sunday, while Kansas transfer Stone Hewlett, junior Jake Faherty and sophomore Christian Foutch also saw the mound.
After beginning his Diamond Hog career with a three-pitch strikeout, Molina then saw the next two reach base via a four-pitch walk and a single to left. The big lefty responded with two straight strikeouts to strand the runners and allow his team to plate two runs in the bottom of the first.
Molina worked his first perfect frame in an Arkansas uniform during the top of the second. He threw just nine pitches in the inning and added two more strikeouts to his total.
The Razorbacks went down in order in the bottom of the second, but it didn't affect Molina's mojo at all. He sat down his first two batters faced on strikes to push his game total to seven, and then he walked JMU star Fenwick Trimble for the second time — it did feel like both could've been intentional. Molina induced a groundout against the next batter to strand Trimble and close his third scoreless frame.
After striking out two of the first three batters he faces in the top of the fourth, Molina ran into trouble with a two-out walk that put a second runner on base. Following a mound visit from pitching coach Matt Hobbs, Molina gave up a two-run double to eight-hole hitter Wyatt Peifer that tied the game at 2-2 and chased the Arkansas starter from the game.
"Things were going good, early," Molina said. "Probably threw too many pitches here and there, but overall, I wasn’t too upset about how I threw. Obviously, pitch count and the walks are probably something we can work on. The guy made a good swing on that double, so I think it’s just something we can kind of work on and take to the next outing with us."
Kansas transfer left-hander Stone Hewlett relieved Molina and got the job done by striking out JMU's Ike Schmidly, who is the brother of Arkansas football walk-on long snapper Max Schmidly.
Highly-touted freshman right-hander Gabe Gaeckle took the bump to start the fifth and he sat 96-98 on the fastball. Gaeckle earned his first career strikeout against the first batter he faced and he worked around a two-out single to retire three of the four batters he faced in his first frame of work.
For just the second time on the afternoon, Arkansas went down in order during the bottom of the fifth inning. JMU star righty Joe Vogatsky, who entered in the bottom of the fourth, picked up two strikeouts in the fifth to keep the game tied up.
Gaeckle responded with a 10-pitch, 1-2-3 top of the sixth for his second straight scoreless frame. Vogatsky nearly matched Gaeckle's top half by going three up, three down and throwing just 11 pitches in the bottom of the sixth.
Trouble struck in the seventh, when Gaeckle had to exit after loading the bases before recording an out.
"Gaeckle’s first outing, throwing strikes for the most part," Van Horn said. "I thought he threw the ball well. They started getting on his fastball a little bit because he got behind in the count. That’s when they got their hits."
Hard-throwing junior righty Jake Faherty inherited the runners and saw all three runners score, although one was unearned.
Arkansas threatened in the bottom of the seventh by loading the bases with two outs after a Wehiwa Aloy RBI double made it 6-3. Missouri transfer Ross Lovich got jammed on a pitch and popped out to second to leave the bases loaded for the second time on the afternoon.
Freshman righty Tate McGuire took the mound to begin the eighth inning and he was pulled with bases loaded and two outs. Sophomore right-hander Christian Foutch came on and induced a groundout to strand the runners.
The Arkansas lineup went down in order in the bottom of the eighth and Vogatsky only had to throw nine pitches in the frame. A 424-foot moonshot from Brendan O'Donnell gave the Dukes an insurance run to make it 7-3 going into the bottom of the ninth.
Vogatsky issued a four-pitch walk to begin the final frame, and JMU turned to righty Jackson Logar, who retired the next three batters to finish the contest.
Up next, the Diamond Hogs will close out the series against JMU in Game 4 on Monday at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. First pitch is set for noon CT and the game will be streamed live on the SEC Network+.
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