FAYETTEVILLE — The No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks earned the sweep over Murray State (6-5) with a 5-3 win Sunday in front of an announced attendance of 9,396 fans who enjoyed blue skies and 70-degree weather at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Junior starting pitcher Mason Molina, a transfer from Texas Tech, tossed five innings of one-run ball while walking just one batter and striking out 10. The left-hander gave up one run via a solo homer in the top of the second inning and then allowed just one hit after that.
Molina threw 77 total pitches in the start and 53 of them were strikes. With the completion of Molina's outing, Arkansas starting pitchers (Hagen Smith, Brady Tygart, Molina) officially combined to give up just three earned runs, while the trio walked seven batters and struck out 65 over the last two weekends.
"You know, he had good stuff, didn’t have his best stuff," head coach Dave Van Horn said postgame. "But his changeup was good. He made a couple of mistakes. Their hitters, they got to the point where they started sitting on his change-up a little bit. Then we started mixing more fastballs."
Fifth-year right-handed pitcher Will McEntire earned the save after throwing the final 3.2 innings. He struck out five batters and gave up just one earned run on three hits. McEntire threw 37 of his 43 total pitches for strikes.
"Some of them were strikes they took," Van Horn said. "Some of them were pitches they thought were strikes that were out of the zone, and that’s what a good pitcher can do to you. They fool you a little bit. Yeah, that’s amazing, 37 out of 43 or whatever you just said. That’s awfully, awfully good."
The Razorbacks scored five runs on 10 hits in the game, as every single starter recorded at least one hit. Freshman Nolan Souza led the way with two hits and three RBIs, including his first career home run.
"It’s fun to watch freshmen that have success and you know you can play them this year and you know you can build around them for the future," Van Horn said when asked about Souza postgame.
Arkansas was 4 of 15 at the plate with runners on and 2 of 4 with runners in scoring position.
A week removed from striking out 10 Michigan batters in Arlington, Texas, Molina started his outing against the Racers with a three-pitch strikeout. He picked up another punchout and then issued a two-out walk, but he stranded the runner shortly after with another three-pitch strikeout.
After the Hogs went down in order during the bottom of the first, Molina retired the first two batters he saw in the top of the second before giving up a two-out nuke to Murray State's Taylor Howell, who sent his solo homer 443 feet to the Hog Pen in left field. Molina responded with his fifth strikeout of the game to close the frame.
Murray State starter Ryan Fender worked around a four-pitch leadoff walk in the bottom half of the second, and he ended up facing the minimum when a Jayson Jones grounder that was hit 109 miles per hour off the bat resulted in a 4-6-3 inning-ending double play.
Molina's first perfect inning came in the top of the third, and the Razorback lineup rewarded him right away with a 398-foot solo homer from Souza — the first of his career — to leadoff the bottom half. Kendall Diggs gave the Hogs a 2-1 lead with a sacrifice fly, but they stranded two runners after the Racers brought in left-handed reliever Allen Roulette.
Arkansas' big left-handed starter returned to the mound and worked another 1-2-3 frame that was closed with back-to-back strikeouts to push his game total to nine punchies.
Roulette gave up back-to-back singles to leadoff the bottom half of the fourth, and Souza drove both runners in with a two-run single hit 108 miles per hour back up the middle. The next three Razorback batters recorded outs to keep the lead at 4-1 after four innings.
"It was a lot of fun," Souza said postgame. "I was just really happy that I could go out there and perform for my teammates. I know they have my back, so I was really happy that I could just go out there and do my job for them."
After allowing the first two batters he faced to reach in the top of the fifth, Molina retired three straight to strand the runners and end his day after five innings pitched.
Following a scoreless bottom of the fifth, Arkansas brought sophomore right-hander Gage Wood on in relief to start the sixth inning. He began with a strikeout, but proceeded to see the next four batters reach base — one of which via an error that saw a run cross on the same play to make it 4-2. Wood was relieved by McEntire, who inherited bases loaded with one out.
Somehow, someway, the Razorbacks escaped the jam when the Racers hit an infield fly and the runner at third was tagged out to make it a double play. Roulette gave up a two-out single in the bottom half of the sixth, and the Racers turned to righty-hander Alex Elsing, who picked up the third out to strand the Arkansas runner and keep it a two-run game.
"A little confusing when the ball went in the air," Van Horn said. "The first thing I said was ‘That’s an infield fly rule.’ But then when the ball hit the ground and started running away from people I was kind of getting a little on edge. But give credit to the guys. They didn’t panic. Even though they probably couldn’t hear a word we were saying - the crowd, the wind."
Murray State leadoff hitter Drew Vogel made it a one-run game with one swing on a two-out, 0-2 pitch from McEntire that Vogel sent 364-feet to the left field bullpen to make it 4-3. McEntire induced a lineout to close the frame on the next at bat.
Arkansas responded by plating its fifth run when Will Edmunson scored on a 6-4-3 double play from Wehiwa Aloy to make it a 5-3 lead entering the eighth inning.
McEntire started the top of the eighth with two strikeouts, but after giving up a two-out single and a Kendall Diggs error, the big righty had two runners in scoring position. One pitch later, he was out of it courtesy of a pop out to second base.
The Razorbacks went down in order in the bottom half of the eighth to leave just three more outs until victory. McEntire picked up the first two outs on six pitches, and after giving up a two-out single, he ended the game by inducing a lineout to third.
"Feel fortunate to win that game," Van Horn said. "Obviously we didn’t play great and scored just enough runs. Give them credit, Murray State. They come out swinging the bats and they played hard. They were fighting to get a win. I thought our guys did a pretty good job of jumping on a couple of mistakes and scoring a run here or there."
Up next, the Razorbacks will host Central Arkansas for a midweek matchup Tuesday at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks and Bears are scheduled for a 3 p.m. CT first pitch and the game will be streamed live on the SEC Network+.
