ATHENS, Ga. — The Arkansas Razorbacks had chance after chance to run up the score against the Georgia Bulldogs on a nearly perfect Thursday evening at Foley Field.
They put runners aboard in all but the second inning, stranding 11 over the course of the game. Scoring first and last was not enough, as the home team’s six consecutive in the middle powered it to a 6-5 victory over the Diamond Hogs to open the three-game set.
"We've been pretty good this year at, maybe not getting the super big hit, but moving people over and then getting them in, scoring a run here or there," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. "We didn't do that tonight. Tonight was all or nothing, it seemed like. I guess you can credit their pitching staff for doing a good job, but we didn't look like our normal selves tonight."
The evening appeared to be off to a great start for the visitors, as nine pitches was all it took for them to establish a lead for starter Hunter Hollan.
Center fielder Tavian Josenberger fell behind 1-2 in the count but watched three straight balls to make his way aboard. Down 0-2, second baseman Peyton Stovall connected with a breaking ball, poking it over his counterpart and deep enough into the gap for his leadoff man to score from first.
Two non-productive outs left designated hitter Ben McLaughlin with an RBI opportunity, and he converted. His single to right, the seventh hit in his past 12 at-bats, doubled the lead.
The Bulldogs had the opportunity to tie it in the bottom of the first, loading the bases against Hollan with two outs. The left-hander induced a groundout to second, however, escaping his typical stressful first with a zero.
Stovall’s sensational stab to initiate a double play helped Hollan out of the second inning, but things unraveled in the third. Three of the first four batters reached via single, and Georgia knotted the score on catcher Hudson Polk’s passed ball.
That was only the beginning of Arkansas’ woes, as Bulldog catcher Fernando Gonzalez jumped on the very next offering to clear the left field fence and make it 5-2.
"They’ve got some good hitters," Van Horn said. "He’s got to pitch ahead, and he’s got a good fastball, but he uses his offspeed well. They didn’t chase. When that’s the case, you’ve got to throw the ball over the plate, and then we didn’t play good defense behind him."
The Georgia lead grew to four runs in the fourth with the assistance from shortstop John Bolton’s two-out fielding error. That allowed a runner to move into scoring position for designated hitter Parks Harber, who drove in his second run in as many innings.
Still, Hollan trotted back out for the fifth, and he worked his first scoreless frame since the second. It marked the end of his outing, which featured seven hits, five walks and five earned runs. The following half inning, his team finally had an answer for the Bulldogs’ six consecutive tallies.
Right fielder Kendall Diggs doubled the other way to lead the frame off and moved up 90 feet on McLaughlin’s second knock of the evening, which marked his third straight multi-hit game. Third baseman Caleb Cali almost dropped a low liner into right field for the third straight hit, but he settled for a sacrifice fly.
With two away and a three-run deficit, Polk hit a 103-mph rope toward the left-center field gap, but center fielder Ben Anderson tracked it down for the third out to keep it 6-3.
"We always know we're not out of it," Cali said. "All we've really got to do is just string a few hits across the board, and normally we come up with those big hits."
Shortstop Harold Coll laced a 106-mph double to left field in his second at-bat since entering for Bolton, but the top of the order could not do anything to cut into the deficit in the seventh.
Right-hander Dylan Carter faced the minimum six hitters through his first two innings in relief of Hollan, giving the Hogs yet another chance to claw back into it in the eighth.
"The mentality was just throw strikes and throw up as many zeros as I could to give my team a chance to score some runs and possibly win that game," Carter said.
Cali plated another run to make it 6-4, and first baseman Brady Slavens wore a pitch to load the bases with nobody out. Polk, Coll and Josenberger all struck out to strand the seventh, eighth and ninth baserunners of the game, including the tying run at second.
"The eighth was a killer," Van Horn said. "We just couldn’t get the big hit there. That’s the disappointment. You’ve got to put the bat on the ball, score a run, get it a little bit closer."
The Hogs almost completed the comeback in the ninth, as Diggs’ RBI double made it a one-run game. With the tying run 180 feet away, Bulldog reliever Dalton Rhadans retired Cali and Slavens on four pitches to end it.
"Tonight it just didn't fall our way," Cali said. "That's basically it. We'll be good. We'll be fine."
Arkansas and Georgia will meet again at 5 p.m. CT Friday in a contest that will stream live on SEC Network Plus. Left-hander Charlie Goldstein will get the ball for the Bulldogs against a Razorback starter to be announced.
