OXFORD, Miss. — With a two-run lead and two innings under his belt, the ninth inning belonged to Gage Wood on Saturday.
The freshman right-hander earned his stripes with a four-out save in a rubber match against the Alabama Crimson Tide on Sunday, but the same situation against Ole Miss on the road gave him the opportunity to double down.
The Rebels were able to put the tying run in the batter’s box, but a pair of athletic plays in the outfield and a swinging strikeout capped off his three-inning save and a 6-4 Arkansas victory.
"It’s something I’ve been working for a long time," Wood said postgame, "and my name got called and I was ready to step up and do my job. But, yeah, I knew once we got those runs that I could keep them away and I could do my job and get us the win right there and not let them score."
Ole Miss starter TJ Quinn had the Razorbacks’ number through two innings. The freshman right-hander faced the minimum six hitters, fanning four of them, on 40 pitches.
Just as he did Friday, Caleb Cali broke the scoreless tie for Arkansas with a home run. His fifth longball of the season hit the left side of the batter’s eye for a 1-0 lead.
"I was just trying to be fastball efficient against that guy. Just trying to lay off the breaking balls. Luckily he gave me one over enough of the plate and I put a good swing on it."
Although Will McEntire did not have the swing-and-miss rate Quinn produced, the Razorback starter was arguably more effective. He recorded nine outs on 25 pitches, notched two perfect innings and induced a double play to erase one of the two hits he surrendered in the second.
The fourth inning posed some trouble for McEntire, who issued a leadoff walk that turned into the tying run. Rebel first baseman Anthony Calarco’s RBI double off the glove of a running Tavian Josenberger in center field leveled the score, but it came on the heels of a heads-up play by Cali that cost the home team a potential lead.
Catcher Calvin Harris singled to center field, moving center fielder Ethan Groff, who drew the leadoff walk, to third. As Josenberger’s throw sailed to Cali, Harris tried to take second but the junior from Florida fired a strike directly in the path of his slide, allowing for second baseman Peyton Stovall to apply the tag in time for the second out.
"They ended up scoring some runs, but that turned it around," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said.
That defensive sharpness was lacking on the other side, as Cali appeared to be toast at third base on a one-out ground ball to shortstop in the fifth. Jacob Gonzalez failed to corral the ball, setting the go-ahead run up 90 feet away.
"Honestly, I don't even think it was the right read," Cali said. "I was thanking God it worked out. The at-bat before he was kind of playing more behind me, and I just hadn't really checked and turned around. He had shifted a bit over more whenever Bolton came up. John kind of hit it a little hard toward the hole. I just, instincts-wise, tried to go as fast as I could, and I got there, and he ended up bobbling it."
Quinn’s wild pitch allowed Cali to score the Hogs’ second run and Bolton to move into scoring position. Stovall drove him in with his fourth hit in two games, extending the lead to 3-1.
McEntire began to fade in the bottom of the fifth, allowing two of the bottom three hitters to reach. Fortunately for the Razorbacks, he picked one of them off, once again preventing Ole Miss from taking the lead.
"He's been sick," Stovall said, "you could tell he was starting to get gassed just from being fatigued all week. That pickoff was huge, 'cause you never know what could happen."
Van Horn called on Dylan Carter for the third time through the order, and Gonzalez belted his second offering beyond the right field fence to knot the score again. That was the second homer the right-hander allowed in as many days.
Carter settled in to face the minimum in the sixth, and the Razorbacks gave him a lead to work with in the seventh.
With Cali on second and two away, Josenberger dropped the go-ahead single into right field, and another error cost the Rebels another run. Stovall’s second hit of the afternoon moved the Arkansas leadoff man to third, but right fielder TJ McCants only knocked the ball down, allowing the third unearned run to score.
"He was stealing on that pitch," Van Horn said. "That’s one reason that he got all the way around. He was moving. The right fielder was not going to throw him out at third, and he just kicked the ball. Then he tried to get it in too quick and made a bad throw. I thought Coach Thompson did a really good job of taking a shot and waiving him in."
Up 5-3 with nine outs to get, Van Horn called on Wood. The freshman pitched himself into trouble, allowing Ole Miss to cut the lead in half on a bloop single by Gonzalez, who represented the go-ahead run, with two outs. A long flyout to right stranded both runners and preserved the one-run lead, a devastating result for the locals, whose rowdy anticipation built as the ball sailed toward the warning track.
Things looked even bleaker for Ole Miss in the eighth, when Arkansas right fielder Jace Bohrofen led off with a double the other way. Designated hitter Kendall Diggs drove him in with a single four pitches later, stretching the lead to 6-4.
Wood returned for the bottom of the eighth, and he retired the side in order, nodding his head as he walked back to the third base dugout with a two-run lead.
"Getting that run in the eighth, mentally, I think that really helped Gage," Van Horn said. "I would think he had just a little more bounce in his step going out there in the eighth with a two-run lead."
Left fielder Jared Wegner laid out to make the catch on a shallow fly ball, preventing the Rebels from leading off the ninth with a hit. Josenberger ranged out to his right to secure the second out with a man aboard.
"I really think that was the game changer today, playing good defense," Stovall said.
Wood got Ole Miss second baseman Peyton Chatagnier to whiff at his 1-2 offering, putting a bow on the Razorbacks’ eighth win in 12 SEC games.
"This is a tough place to play, tough place to win," Van Horn said. "We’re super excited about it honestly. We get to fly home most of the time but this was the only one, and rightly so, that’s a bus trip. It’s about 5 1/2 hours, so it’s gonna make the ride home a lot better for everybody."
Having been virtually deadlocked with No. 1 LSU atop the SEC West since the two teams met two weeks ago, the Hogs sit alone in first place by a half-game, thanks to the cancellation of the Tigers’ series finale against South Carolina.
"I think it's awesome," Stovall said. "They're a really good team, but we're just going to continue to try to play our brand of baseball, just keep having success, just keep swinging the bats well, keep playing great defense and continuing to pitch well. We're looking forward to the coming weeks."
Arkansas will return home to face UALR at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the first of a two-game set, before welcoming the No. 11 Tennessee Volunteers next weekend.
