Arkansas wins back-and-forth battle 6-5 over Auburn
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The No. 1 Arkansas Razorbacks (19-2, 5-0 SEC) defeated the No. 23 Auburn Tigers (14-8, 0-5 SEC) to hand the Hogs their second-straight SEC series win with a 6-5 victory at Samford Stadium on Friday evening.
Head coach Dave Van Horn was absent during the game for personal reasons, and pitching coach Matt Hobbs took over his usual duties and spoke about the experience afterward.
"It’s obviously tough for the team just because he’s such a fixture in the dugout and the guys look to him when things are going a little haywire like they were early," Hobbs said after the game. "He’s kind of a calming force in there all the time. It seems like every button the guy presses usually works out in our favor. So it’s never easy when he’s not there.
"Now, I will the guys credit. They played with a ton of energy and they just never really backed down from anything that was going on. When we got down early, when it wasn’t going out way, we were able punch back a lot of different times. I think he’d have been proud of how the guys fought today. But when he’s not there, it always feels a little weird."
It was a back-and-forth battle between both teams, as there were three lead-changes and three ties before freshman catcher Ryder Helfrick hit a moon shot homerun in the top of the ninth to give the Hogs a 6-5 lead.
"If you know Ryder, everyone’s always pulling for this kid because he works so hard," pitching coach Matt Hobbs said. "He’s really tough on himself when he doesn’t do well, and he’d been struggling. So the reaction in the dugout was elation. Not just because we took the lead — I mean, obviously that was important too — but they were all happy for him because of how hard he works and everybody knows what he puts into this thing and how important it is for him to do his job.
"Everyone was really happy for him. We’ve seen him do this. We’ve seen him do it in the fall, we saw him do it early in the spring. It’s been uneven for him, but it doesn’t mean the kid’s not super talented and that everybody on our staff has a lot of faith in him."
With head coach Dave Van Horn out for the game due to personal reasons, the Razorbacks committed two errors and starting pitcher Brady Tygart had a shaky outing. In 3.2 innings pitched, he had a career-high five walks with three earned runs and only struck out four.
"Yeah, I mean it’s just… I guess for a lack of a better term, he’s spinning off the ball a little bit and he’s not staying through the ball as well as he was earlier in the season," Hobbs said. "It’s something that we have to work on and fix. He’s aware of it, I’m aware of it, it’s just something we’re going to have to work through. I think that was the one thing you see from Brady, over-rotating on some of those pitches.
"It pulls him into the other batter’s box. If you look at his misses, he’s either missing arm-side up or pulling the ball into the glove-side of the glove-side batter’s box. That’s usually a hallmark of something… It’ll be a rotational issue that we’ll fix, but Brady’s a good rotator and he knows that’s a strength of his, but sometimes it can be a weakness if he gets going a little bit too fast and tries to create velocity with the wrong parts of his body."
Arkansas' bullpen came up in a big way, though, as RHP Koty Frank, RHP Gage Wood, LHP Stone Hewlett, RHP Cooper Dossett and RHP Will McEntire allowed a combined seven hits and one run with eight strikeouts.
"I think it speaks to the depth and also that we trust those guys in big spots," Hobbs said. "Coop, that’s probably the biggest spot Coop’s had to pitch in his entire baseball career here and I thought he did an admirable job. Koty Frank went in there and threw strikes. They hit some of them and I thought he threw the ball fine. Gage Wood, same thing. Gage was just a little unfortunate with a lot of the stuff. He threw a really good cutter that got hit down the line for a double. We got a little chopper back to him, had some miscommunication in the infield, and they ended up getting on base right there.
"I thought Stone Hewlett, that’s a huge, huge out, to be able to help us get off the field. And then Coop comes in and Ben McLaughlin really makes the defensive play of the day to be able to get us off the field right there on a diving play on a tough ball, in-between hop. Him and Kendall Diggs made unbelievable defensive plays — and Peyton Stovall, too, on that relay throw to get that out at home. I’m proud of the pitching in terms of the guys being able to get into some roles they hadn’t been in before. Super proud of the defense."
Offensively, Ben McLaughlin shined at the plate with a 2-for-3 day including a second-inning solo homerun to tie things up 1-1. Ty Wilmsmeyer added two hits, Will Edmunson had two RBIs and Peyton Stovall and Wehiwa Aloy each added a base knock on the day.
Arkansas' first batter of the game started things well for the Hogs, as Peyton Stovall singled into left field on the third pitch of the game. It didn't last long, though, as Wehiwa Aloy grounded into a double play to wipe off the leadoff baserunner and Diggs grounded out to first.
Brady Tygart's day began with a leadoff double by Auburn's Cooper Weiss, who stole third and eventually scored on an RBI groundout. Tygart bounced back with a strikeout before picking up a four-pitch walk, but he ended things off with a groundout.
Tie game! Following a groundout by Hudson White to start the second inning, Ben McLaughlin homered to right field to notch things up at one apiece. The Tigers got out of the frame mostly unscathed following back-to-back flyouts by Jared Sprague-Lott and Will Edmunson.
The bottom of the second was a bit strange. The Tigers got things going with a leadoff single, and had their first two men on after a bunt. However, the play was reviewed and it was reversed to out. Tygart struck out the next batter and forced a groundout to escape the frame.
It was another uneventful top of the third for Arkansas. Parker Rowland struck out, Ty Wilmsmeyer grounded out and Stovall ended things with a ground out to first.
Things got off to a shaky start in the bottom of the third, as back-to-back walks by Tygart gave Auburn a chance to do some early damage. The Tigers broke through for a run thanks to an error by McLaughlin at first, and then Tygart walked another to put two runners on. He bounced back with a strikeout, but after a balk and a fielder's choice, Auburn led 3-1.
Aloy led off the fourth with a base knock through the left side on a full-count pitch and Diggs followed suit with a single straight back to Allsup. White uncharacteristically struck out looking in Arkansas' next at-bat, but McLaughlin punched back with a single to shortstop to load the bases. Sprague-Lott drew a bases loaded walk to score a run and Edmunson smashed a single to left field to score two and hand the Hogs a 4-3 lead. The inning finally ended after back-to-back strikeouts by Roland and Wilmsmeyer.
Auburn began its fourth inning frame with another lead off man on base via a single. Tygart bounced back with a flyout and a strikeout, but walked his fifth batter of the game to force a pitching change. Arkansas turned to RHP Koty Frank, who drew a first-pitch lineout to escape the jam.
In the fifth inning, Arkansas never really got anything going and the Hogs went 1-2-3 after Stovall, Aloy and Diggs grounded out.
For the fifth inning in a row, Auburn's leadoff man reached base via a double down the right field line. That runner eventually came around to score to tie things up at four after a single and then an error by Rowland, but Frank escaped without allowing any more damage.
With the game tied and in need of some runs, Arkansas grounded out, flew out and struck out to end an eight-pitch top of the sixth.
Arkansas finally retired the Tigers' leadoff man in the bottom of the sixth on a flyout, but after a single and stolen base, Auburn took a 5-4 lead on another base knock. Auburn's Ike Irish followed up with a double, but Cooper Weiss was thrown out at home on a throw by Stovall. The Hogs turned to RHP Gage Wood to escape the jam, and he promptly struck out the final batter to end the inning.
RHP John Armstrong took the mound for Auburn in the seventh, and Edmunson got hit by the first pitch of the at-bat. Nolan Souza came in to pinch hit for Rowland, but struck out looking. Wilmsmeyer singled to third base on a bunt and Edmunson reached third on an error by Auburn's third baseman. Stovall scored Edmunson on a sac-fly to tie the game at five before Aloy struck out to end the frame.
Tell me if you've heard this before, but Auburn got another leadoff man on in the seventh thanks to a hit by pitch by Wood. He came back with a strikeout, but then allowed a double to give Auburn runners on second and third with only one out. Auburn's Mason Maners hit a single back to Wood to load the bases, and the Hogs turned to LHP Stone Hewlett to limit the damage. Hewlett strikes his man out and then RHP Cooper Dossett comes in and forces a groundout to end the threat.
"I think the thing that makes Stone (Hewlett) really, really good against lefts is being able to sweep his slider, but he can also armside it," Hobbs said. "One of those pitches that I thought was really close was a slider and it was middle-in to the lefty that he took and you very rarely see lefties that can front-door breaking balls left-on-left. It’s a tough pitch to throw and he does it on purpose and I think that makes him very difficult to deal with because he can still sweep the slider out of the zone and everything is hard, and it looks like his fastball."
Diggs and White flew out and struck out, respectively, to start the eighth, but McLaughlin worked a walk on a six-pitch at-bat to keep things alive for the Hogs. Sprague-Lott struck out swinging and Arkansas remained at bay for another inning.
Lead. Off. Walk. Dossett's full count pitch doesn't land, but the baserunner was thrown out at second by Helfrick on a steal attempt. The umpire was hit by a pitch and had to be removed from the game. Following a roughly 30-minute delay, Dossett got the batter to fly out before ending the inning with a strikeout.
"So really proud of Coop for having to sit for, I think it was 22-23 minutes at the end of the day," Hobbs said. "Really proud of Coop for that. He had not had to do that really in his entire career, I don’t think. But he played catch and he just kind of stayed engaged. He came up to me right as the break was happening and told me what pitch he wanted to throw and where he wanted to throw it and just got himself ready to do that.
"It was explained to us that they had to go take the umpires back to their locker room, the umpire had to change and the round trip was going to take a minute. The umpires were in communication the whole time. They let us know what was going on. They gave Coop plenty of time to get loose. They gave our guys time to play catch in the outfield. I thought the umpires handled it as good as you could handle it given the situation."
Edmunson grounded out to start the ninth, but then RYDER HELFRICK hit a MOON SHOT home run over the green monster in left field to hand Arkansas a 6-5 lead. Wilmsmeyer laced a single to right field and then the Tigers turned to LHP Tanner Bauman in relief. He strikes out Stovall after a lengthy, nine-pitch at-bat, hits Aloy with a pitch and then gets Diggs to swing and miss for another strikeout to end the frame.
"Going into the game is kind of focusing on catching, really just trying to make our pitchers make the pitches and catch them as best as possible," Helfrick said after the game. "Going in that at-bat, I'd say I wasn't really thinking. I know he’s a sinker guy, so I was just trying to elevate the baseball. Just kind of sit on fastball and see where it goes."
Needing three more outs to win the game, the Hogs turned to RHP Will McEntire in the bottom of the ninth. McEntire struck out the first Auburn batter on a nasty breaking ball, forced a groundout and then struck out the final Tiger on his only fastball of the inning to win the series for the Razorbacks.
“It’s basically the same stuff as always," McEntire said after the game. "I feel pretty better after a day of throwing. I just got with coach Hobbs and said, ‘hey, I feel even better today after throwing yesterday.’ I took my time warming up in the pen. I felt like I had some great stuff today. I went out and just played.”
Up next, Arkansas will take on the Auburn Tigers in the third game of the series on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. CT and it will stream on SEC Network+.
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