FAYETTEVILLE — The No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks (11-2) took Game 1 of a Saturday doubleheader, 3-1, against the McNeese State Cowboys (8-6) at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Game 1 was originally scheduled for 3 p.m. CT Friday, but weather postponed it to a noon start Saturday. Due to the game getting pushed back, Arkansas ace Hagen Smith was on a lower pitch count, but he still struck out nine batters across four scoreless innings.
The junior left-hander threw 64 total pitches and 38 of them were strikes. Smith gave up just one hit, but he did walk three batters to push his season total to seven.
Arkansas then benefitted from the efforts of right-handed relievers Will McEntire and Gabe Gaeckle, who combined for 4.2 innings of one-run ball. Gaeckle, a freshman, earned his third save of the season, while Smith was the winning pitcher.
At the plate, Arkansas had nine hits in the game with five of them coming with runners on base. Arkansas was 4-of-13 with runners in scoring position on the day and the Hogs left seven runners on base in total.
First baseman Ben McLaughlin and catcher Hudson White both had two hits each, while White, Peyton Holt and Wehiwa Aloy all had RBIs in the game.
For the first time since the season opener, Smith looked human during the top of the first inning. He began with a strikeout (shocker), but then issued back-to-back walks to bring his season total to six. The lefty then retired the next two batters, the second of which was his 232nd career strikeout to tie him with former Hog Kevin Kopps for sixth-most in program history.
McNeese State starter Cameron LeJeune had to face the minimum in the bottom of the first against the Razorbacks' lineup.
Smith began the second like he did the first — with a strikeout. After issuing a one-out walk, he retired the next two batters on strikes to the surprise of nobody in the ballpark. Despite having two on with one out, the Hogs had catcher Hudson White hit into a 6-4-3 inning-inning double play to spoil the opportunity.
The third inning was the most efficient to that point for Arkansas' left-hander, as Smith went 1-2-3 on just 14 pitches. The Razorbacks rewarded him in the bottom half by plating a run via an RBI single from Hawaii native Wehiwa Aloy that drove in fellow Hawaii native Nolan Souza to make it a 1-0 lead for the Hogs after three innings.
Smith faced just one more than the minimum in the top of the fourth again, plus he picked up two more strikeouts to push his game total to nine. With his pitch count at 64 one day after he was initially scheduled to start, Smith's day was done after four innings.
Arkansas plated a second run via an RBI double to the wall in right-center from White in the bottom of the fourth. With the Hogs up 2-0, White then went behind the dish to catch for right-hander Will McEntire in the top of the fifth.
McEntire worked around a pair of two-out singles in his first frame, and following a scoreless bottom of the fifth by the Arkansas bats, the fifth-year senior pitcher gave up a run on a one-out RBI single in the top of the sixth. That ended up being all the Cowboys could scratch across, though, and the Hogs still led 2-1 after that half inning.
A leadoff single from Jared Sprague-Lott in the bottom of the sixth chased LeJeune and brought on McNeese State right-hander JT Moeller. The Razorbacks did get a run across via a pinch hit RBI single to left from Peyton Holt that made it 3-1. The Hogs pinch hit Hudson Polk and Will Edmunson next, but both recorded outs to strand two runners.
After junior right-hander Jake Faherty began the top of the seventh, he was quickly pulled once he loaded the bases with just one out. Gaeckle put out the fire with a strikeout and groundout to strand all three runners.
Moeller worked back-to-back perfect innings across the seventh and eighth and he added four strikeouts across the two frames. Squeezed in the middle, Gaeckle faced one more than the minimum (thanks to an error) in a scoreless to of the eighth.
Gaeckle picked up his third save of the season retiring three in a row after giving up a leadoff single in the top of the ninth.
The Razorbacks and Cowboys will start Game 2 of the three-game series at 3:30 p.m. CT as the second half of Saturday's doubleheader at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. Game 3 is still set for a 1 p.m. CT first pitch Sunday. All games of the series will be streamed on the SEC Network+.
