Isaiah Campbell turned in one of his best outings of the season, but it wasn’t enough in a Friday night pitcher’s duel.
Arkansas’ ace earned his first loss and Vanderbilt ace Drake Fellows remained undefeated with the No. 7 Commodores’ 3-2 win to open a top-10 showdown in Nashville, Tenn.
In a season-high 7 2/3 innings, Campbell (6-1) gave up three earned runs on six hits and no walks while striking out nine on 98 pitches. Fellows (7-0) wasn’t quite as efficient for the Commodores, needing 107 pitches to get through seven innings and giving up seven hits and two walks.
The difference was the timing of the hits those aces allowed.
All No. 10 Arkansas could muster against Fellows was a two-out RBI single by Casey Opitz in the second inning. It had plenty of opportunities, though, stranding seven runners on base with the right-hander still on the mound.
The sixth inning was particularly tough because Matt Goodheart hit a leadoff double and Jack Kenley followed with an infield single. Neither player scored, as Jacob Nesbit grounded into a fielder’s choice and Opitz grounded into a double play.
Meanwhile, the Commodores strung three of their hits together, with Ethan Paul and Philip Clarke hitting back-to-back RBI doubles. Both were inches away from not happening, but Christian Franklin couldn’t quite make the diving grab in left to rob Paul and Clarke’s hit hugged the first base line to stay just fair.
After the Razorbacks couldn’t capitalize on Goodheart’s leadoff extra-base hit in the top of the sixth, Vanderbilt turned a leadoff triple by Austin Martin into an insurance run with a JJ Bleday sacrifice fly.
That proved to be a critical run when the Commodores’ first reliever, Zach King, struggled with his command in the eighth. He hit one and walked two before coming out.
With one out and the bases loaded, they turned to closer Tyler Brown. He gave up an RBI ground out to Jacob Nesbit, but stranded the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position by getting Opitz to look at strike three. He ended up retiring five straight to earn the five-inning save.
In all, the Razorbacks left nine runners on base, including five in scoring position. Although he drove in one run, Opitz was responsible for five of those stranded runners, making the third out of an inning three times.
Game 2 of the series has been moved up to a noon start Saturday because thunderstorms are expected in the area later in the day. It was originally scheduled for 8 p.m. on ESPNU, but it will now only be streamed on SEC Network-plus (ESPN3.com/WatchESPN app).
Both teams are sending freshmen right-handers to the mound, with Arkansas starting Connor Noland (0-1, 4.59 ERA) and Vanderbilt countering with Kumar Rocker (2-4, 5.90 ERA).
BOX SCORE
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