Diamond Hogs complete 2nd ever sweep at MSU

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A five-run four inning was enough for Arkansas to complete a sweep of Mississippi State on Sunday.

Matt Goodheart sparked the big inning with a first-pitch leadoff home run and the Razorbacks held on for a 6-4 win over the Bulldogs at Dudy Noble Field.

It is just the second time Arkansas has ever swept a series in Starkville, Miss., with the other happening in 2010. Coming into the weekend, the Razorbacks had lost eight straight games at Mississippi State’s home park, dating back to 2014.

“We just got manhandled in all phases of the game and that includes coaching,” Mississippi State coach Chris Lemonis said. “We got beat in every phase and we’ve got a good team, but we did not show up ready to play this weekend.”

The game was scoreless for three innings, but Mississippi State threatened in the third. The Bulldogs loaded the bases with the help of two infield singles, but came up empty when Lael Lockhart got Tanner Allen to fly out to center.

That set the stage for the fourth inning.

Goodheart launched the first pitch he saw over the right field wall for his fourth homer in as many games and the Razorbacks kept it going with a single by Cayden Wallace and walk by Brady Slavens. A wild pitch moved them to second and third, but it looked like Jackson Fristoe might get out of it.

However, after back-to-back strikeouts, Arkansas strung together three straight RBI hits. Jalen Battles and Jacob Nesbit had singles sandwiched around Robert Moore’s triple. The hit by Battles resulted in two runs thanks to an error.

“We always talk about getting two-out hits, but it really is about making two-out pitches and it’s about making two-out plays and we didn’t get off the field this weekend, and it kills us,” Lemonis said. “We couldn’t get off the field today. It killed us in the fourth inning.”

Mississippi State responded by loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fourth, but Arkansas limited the damage to just two runs.

The Razorbacks tacked on another run with a bases-loaded walk by Braydon Webb in the sixth, which felt particularly big when Luke Hancock and Logan Tanner hit consecutive home runs to lead off the bottom of the inning.

That pulled the Bulldogs within 6-4, which proved to be the final score.

Arkansas called on freshman Jaxon Wiggins to close it out and the hard-throwing right-hander threw two scoreless innings to earn his fourth save of the season.

Both innings were eventful, though. Wiggins put the tying runs on base in the eighth before getting a strikeout and fly out to strand them. In the ninth, he gave up a leadoff single before getting Rowdey Jordan to ground into a double play.

Even after Allen singled to once again bring the tying run to the plate, Kamren James flied out to center to end the game.

“You’ve just got to stay calm in a situation like that,” Wiggins said on the postgame radio show. “You can’t get overwhelmed.”

Arkansas returns to Baum-Walker Stadium this week, first with a midweek matchup against Central Arkansas on Tuesday and then with a three-game series against Auburn beginning Thursday.