FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas baseball team scrimmaged for the third time in 2024 on Monday afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium and the Gray squad earned a 5-3 victory over Cardinal in 4.5 innings.
Freshmen pitchers Colin Fisher and Tate McGuire shined on the mound for their respective squads.
Fisher, a 6-foot-3 freshman from Noble, Oklahoma, tossed two scoreless innings and struck out four while facing the minimum for Cardinal. McGuire came on in relief of sophomore Ben Bybee and his lone mistake in 2 1/3 innings pitched was giving up a solo homer to Wehiwa Aloy. A freshman out of Liberty, Missouri, McGuire struck out four and didn't issue a walk.
Aloy, a transfer from Sacramento State, went 2-for-2 at the plate with the solo homer and an RBI single for Cardinal. Texas Tech transfer Hudson White (single) and catcher Hudson Polk (424-foot homer) were the only other batters with a hit for Cardinal. Jack Wagner, Parker Rowland and Ty Waid all had hits for the Gray squad.
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Box Score
Note: The box score has it listed as "White" team, but HawgBeat referred to it as Gray, as that was the color of the jerseys.
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The Rundown...
Sophomore righty Ben Bybee got things started on the mound for Gray in the top of the first by striking out junior captain Peyton Stovall. Texas Tech transfer catcher Hudson White lined a ball 101 miles per hour off the bat to left for a one-out single and he later scored via a two-out RBI single from Sacramento State transfer Wehiwa Aloy.
Bybee stranded Aloy by striking out Ben McLaughlin to bring an end to the 16-pitch top of the first. In the bottom half, freshman lefty Colin Fisher looked sharp by going three up, three down with a pair of strikeouts to Missouri transfer Ross Lovich and Tarleton State transfer Jack Wagner.
In the top of the second, Gray made a pitching change to freshman righty Tate McGuire after Bybee following one strikeout and one walk to start the frame. McGuire retired the first two batters he faced to strand the runner he inherited.
The bottom of the second was nearly identical to the first, as Fisher induced a groundout before retiring the second two batters on strikes. The freshman left-hander sat down each of his first six batters faced.
McGuire took advantage of his opportunity in the top of the third by going three-up, three down to continue facing the minimum through five batters faced. Fellow freshman Jack Smith took over for Cardinal, which was up 1-0, in the bottom of the third.
Trouble finally struck for Gray when Smith allowed a two-out, two-run double to Wagner with bases loaded. As Smith grabbed the ball and turned to walk back to the mound, Peyton Holt sprinted from third to home and plated Gray's third run within the same sequence.
Cardinal earned a run back in the top of the fourth when Aloy took McGuire deep to left field for a solo shot that was the first hit given up by the freshman righty. McGuire responded with back-to-back strikeouts to push his scrimmage total to four by that point.
Freshman righty Diego Ramos took the mound for Cardinal in the bottom of the fourth and he saw two runs plated against him, including one on an RBI single from catcher Parker Rowland. That frame made it a 5-2 lead for Gray after four innings.
The top of the fifth inning ended up being the last frame with freshman right-hander Jaewoo Cho on the mound for Gray. Catcher Hudson Polk took Cho deep to center for a 424-foot solo shot off the batter's eye that made it a 5-3 Gray lead, but Cho retired the other three batters he faced to end the scrimmage.
