FAYETTEVILLE — Runs were not hard to come by on a brisk Tuesday evening in Northwest Arkansas.
Baum-Walker Stadium’s first night game of the season featured 20 of them and lasted just over three hours as the Diamond Hogs secured their ninth straight victory, a 13-7 decision over the UNLV Rebels.
Arkansas freshman lefty Parker Coil got the starting nod for the second straight Tuesday, and it was another short one. Once again, two of his first three batters collected hits against him, and the Razorbacks trailed heading to bat for the first time.
The Edmond, Oklahoma, native managed to log a perfect second inning, but he failed to make it out of the third, exiting with a two-run deficit and one out. Right-hander Dylan Carter allowed his inherited runner to score, bringing his earned run count to four.
The Razorbacks drew a pair of walks against Rebel starter Joey Acosta to get their half of the first underway, but both runners were stranded. The next inning began a steady flow of offense, beginning with second baseman Harold Coll’s first homer in an Arkansas uniform.
Trailing 4-1 in the third and facing a new arm, third baseman Jayson Jones did his part to eat into the deficit, plating designated hitter Kendall Diggs with a two-out knock to left field that left the bat at 108 mph.
Nick Rupp, the third Rebel hurler of the contest, also did not have an answer for the Hogs, who turned things up with a five-spot. After Carter notched a 1-2-3 top of the fourth, Coll led the home half off with a double, and a pair of strikeouts gave way to four straight Razorbacks reaching with two outs.
Diggs brought it within a run with his single, center fielder Jared Wegner tied it with another and right fielder Jace Bohrofen gave Arkansas its first lead of the night with a third, prompting a third UNLV pitching change.
Jones kept the line moving with a walk, and Reese Robinett, his fellow freshman infielder, made it 7-4 with the fifth hit of the frame.
Sophomore righty Austin Ledbetter relieved Carter after 21 pitches, carving up the Rebels with 10 in the fifth. He ran into some trouble with a leadoff double in the sixth but escaped with just one run allowed, which the Razorbacks matched in a hurry.
Diggs sliced his third hit of the game to the left-center field gap, and Bohrofen drove him in for the second time. Three batters later, Coll stretched it to 10-5 with his third extra-base knock, and pinch hitter Hunter Grimes scored the 11th run on a wild pitch.
Ledbetter could not quite finish the seventh inning, turning it over to righty Cody Adcock with a five-run advantage and runners on the corners with a 2-0 count and two outs. The junior finished off the walk to load the bases, and a single brought it one run closer to close the book on Ledbetter with three earned.
Adcock rebounded from the 20 pitches he needed to get the third out and a Grimes fielding error at second base, punching out a hitter and inducing two flyouts for a scoreless eighth.
Arkansas continued to pour it on with Grimes’ RBI triple and Coll’s RBI groundout, taking a six-run advantage into the ninth.
Freshman right-hander Gage Wood was tasked with recording the final three outs in his second appearance in three days. A one-out walk posed a minor threat, but a 4-6-3 double play put a bow on the series-opening win.
The second of the two-game set against the Rebels is scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday, and it will stream live on SEC Network Plus.
