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FAYETTEVILLE — When Arkansas’ bats finally woke up Friday, they lit up the Baum-Walker Stadium scoreboard.
The Razorbacks pounded out 10 extra-base hits, including four home runs, and destroyed North Carolina State to the tune of a 21-2 score in the opening game of the Fayetteville Super Regional.
It was unfamiliar territory for Arkansas, which scored a UA postseason record 21 runs - surpassing the 20 it racked up against Eastern Kentucky in the 1985 South II Regional. That was a stark contrast to the close, “pins and needles” games it’s grown accustomed to, head coach Dave Van Horn said.
“We’ve played so many tight games in the tournament - the SEC Tournament and then also the regional - I mean, it was different, obviously,” Van Horn said. “It was nice to win one and kind of know in the middle of the game that if we just held it together a little bit, we were going to win it, because we’ve had some really tight ones.”
One thing that was the same for the Razorbacks, though, was playing from behind. The Wolfpack actually scored the game’s first run when Jose Torres launched a leadoff home run in the second inning.
That lead was short-lived, as Arkansas immediately answered with a two-run home run by Robert Moore in the bottom of the inning.
The Razorbacks tacked on another run in the second when Casey Opitz reached on a two-out single, stole second and then scored on Jalen Battles’ RBI double, but it was the next inning that Arkansas broke things open.
With the bases loaded and once again two outs, Cullen Smith hit a 2-2 pitch to the right-center gap and the ball carried over the fence for a grand slam to make it 7-1.
“The ball was jumping tonight at the ballpark, big time,” Van Horn said. “Light wind blowing across. It almost played like the wind was blowing out. We were fortunate. We got some balls up and hit them out of the park.”
Charlie Welch - making a rare start as the Razorbacks’ designated hitter - hit a two-run home run in the fifth and Moore went deep again in the eighth, this time a three-run shot to put the finishing touches on the blowout.
Those second two long balls were both to the opposite field and the pair - Welch and Moore - each finished a triple shy of the cycle. Moore, who became the first UA player to hit for the cycle since 1994 when he did it in a midweek win over Central Arkansas, probably had the best shot at it.
“Someone was telling me (about) the Bobby Witt Jr. video where he didn’t step on home plate and they gave him a triple,” Moore said. “Someone was telling me I should’ve just went back to the dugout, so I could get the cycle.”
Moore matched his career high with four hits, going 4 for 5 with five RBIs, five runs scored and one walk. It was probably the most impressive performance of the night, but Arkansas saw eight of nine starters notch at least one hit.
Six Razorbacks actually had multiple hits, with Welch’s 3-for-4 day at the plate getting his batting average back up to .400 in 60 at bats this season.
“Their offense is good,” North Carolina State head coach Elliott Avent said. “It's designed for this ballpark and they've got a good team."
He probably couldn’t have imagined an offensive explosion quite like that, as the 17 hits were Arkansas’ most since having 19 at LSU on May 1, but Van Horn told reporters earlier in the week that his team needed to start swinging the bats better.
Coming into the weekend, the Razorbacks were hitting just .222 as a team in the postseason. In the eight games at the SEC Tournament and in the Fayetteville Regional, though, they still averaged 6.8 runs thanks to hitting 13 home runs and drawing 56 walks.
“We just kind of gear our swings to hit doubles, triples, home runs, so the batting averages may not be as high because of that, but our damage was pretty high,” Moore said. “That’s a credit to our coaching staff, a credit to our players seeing a lot of cookies and destroying them.”
Arkansas improved to 50-11 with the win, marking the first time it has won 50 games during the Van Horn era. That is also one shy of the school record for wins, which was set in 1985 and matched in 1987 and 1989.
“We’ve won a lot of games,” Van Horn said. “We still have work to do. We’re not going to get all carried away about it. It’ll probably be something we talk about when the season’s over, but we’ve got to keep winning.”
Tale of Two Starters
Considering it was a Friday night in the biggest series of the season, both teams started their top pitcher. Only one lived up to his ace billing.
North Carolina State’s Reid Johnston had pitched really well in his last two starts, going eight innings in the ACC Tournament and the Ruston Regional, but ran into the buzzsaw that was Arkansas’ offense in Fayetteville
The Razorbacks scored a touchdown with him on the mound, with three runs in the second inning and four in the third. Five of those runs came with two outs and all seven were earned, coming on six hits and one walk.
The right-hander threw 30-plus pitches each of those big innings by Arkansas’ offense and was chased after only three innings. Previously, he had pitched at least six innings in all 10 of his starts this season.
