Diamond Hogs complete sweep over Tennessee
FAYETTEVILLE — After defeating No. 16 Tennessee in tight fashion the first two games of the series, the Diamond Hogs left no doubt Sunday.
No. 5 Arkansas hung a pair of crooked numbers on Volunteer starter Drew Beam in the first two innings, and all that was left to do was get to 27 outs. The visitors never drew closer than four runs in their attempt to salvage a game, and their hosts prevailed 7-2 to improve to 11-4 in SEC play.
The Razorbacks continued to be aggressive on the basepaths early on, as center fielder Tavian Josenberger drew a walk and stole the team’s ninth base of the series. Second baseman Peyton Stovall, who entered Sunday 0-7 against the Volunteers, looped a single over the head of shortstop Jake Kendro to drive in the game’s first run.
"It was big because I think it just kind of showed them that we were going to continue to do what we’re doing until they stop us," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said.
Beam, who boasted the strongest SEC numbers among the trio of Tennessee starters, struggled to throw the ball over the plate, walking two more batters to load the bases. Arkansas first baseman Brady Slavens doubled the lead with a sacrifice fly, and third baseman Caleb Cali’s RBI single stretched the lead to 3-0.
Things only got worse for the Volunteer righty, who paid for two more free passes in the second. With two outs and another chance to do damage with the bases loaded, Slavens squeezed a ball between the first baseman and the bag, and it found its way to the corner for a bases-clearing triple.
"He was just starting out all the lefties with a breaking ball, and so I thought it might be a good idea to jump on it first pitch," Slavens said.
Beam surrendered more runs — six — than he recorded outs — five — turning it over to right-hander Chase Burns.
The 6-0 cushion gave Razorback starter Ben Bybee plenty of margin for error after a pair of stressful innings to begin his outing. After stranding four runners to keep his shutout intact, the freshman retired the side in order in the third to carry it into the middle innings with 47 pitches.
Bybee recorded the first out in the fourth, marking his longest outing since March 21 against Southeast Missouri State. It was, however, sandwiched between a pair of free passes, prompting Van Horn to turn to Dylan Carter.
"The plan was to go to Carter if there was, we call in the dugout, some traffic on the bases there, people on base," Van Horn said, "because he has experience with that. It’s not going to get him all upright, so that’s kind of what we did. Especially when Bybee gave us 10 outs, I just feel like we’re trying to shrink that game, and he was the guy."
Carter quickly recorded the second out, but a walk moved a pair of runners into scoring position, and Tennessee left fielder Jared Dickey singled the other way to plate both inherited runners, shrinking the margin to 6-2.
Doing his best Chase Dollander impression from Saturday, Carter proceeded to face one more than the minimum to carry the Razorbacks to the seventh-inning stretch. The sophomore did allow two hits in the same inning, but he erased one of them with a 5-4-3 double play ball.
"I knew I had to do whatever I can to help our team win today, and I thought I did to the best ability that I could," Carter said.
The next half inning, Josenberger put the game out of slam range with a solo shot to right, his seventh of the season.
Down to their last six outs, the Volunteers collected their fifth hit of the contest to lead off the eighth. Unfortunately for them, the second twin killing of the afternoon and fourth in the last two days wiped it out. Carter fanned his third hitter to end the inning and strutted to the dugout just three outs shy of a series sweep.
Van Horn and pitching coach Matt Hobbs sent Carter back out for the ninth with 4 ⅔ innings and 64 pitches under his belt, but he surrendered a pair of hits to the first two hitters he saw. The coaches called on a third pitcher for the first time all weekend.
Freshman Christian Foutch inherited two runners in scoring position, marking the first time since the fourth Tennessee had multiple runners aboard. The right-hander punched out pinch hitter Griffin Merritt, popped Dickey up and got the help of second baseman Peyton Stovall to keep them right where he found them and seal the 7-2 decision.
"He kind of showed us last week against Ole Miss that he’s ready for this," Van Horn said, "because they have a good lineup, tough place and he just went out here and pitched. He didn’t get all carried away or worried about what was going on on the bases. He knew we had the lead, and he didn’t need to worry about those runners. He just needed to attack the hitters, and that’s what he did."
Halfway through the 30-game SEC slate, Arkansas stands alone atop the Western Division, a game and a half clear of No. 1 LSU.
"We don’t really look at that," Slavens said. "Anybody can beat you any week, and it’s a tough schedule coming up. We’ve got to go on the road and we’ve still got a couple of really good teams to play."
Next up for the Diamond Hogs are the Central Arkansas Bears, who are scheduled to take the field at Baum-Walker Stadium at 6 p.m. Tuesday on SEC Network Plus. After that, the Razorbacks will hit the road for Athens, Georgia, the site of a three-game set with the Bulldogs beginning Thursday.
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