Diamond Hogs snap road losing skid, defeat Mississippi State
STARKVILLE, Miss. — The road has been almost unbelievably unkind to the Razorback baseball team over the last four games, but Friday night at Dudy Noble Field offered a break from the chaos and a return to the win column.
A pair of two-run homers and a relatively calm night on the mound propelled No. 6 Arkansas to a 6-2 series-opening victory against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
"It feels good," third baseman Caleb Cali said. "I think we came to the ballpark today and we just wanted to have fun."
The visitors notched their 15th SEC win in 22 games while their hosts fell even deeper into desperation mode: 1 ½ games out of 12th place, the last spot to earn a conference tournament bid.
"I challenged them a little bit yesterday that we’ve got to play better on the road and don’t worry about getting beat, just play, and they did," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said.
Mississippi State immediately paid for a leadoff walk to right fielder Kendall Diggs. Starter Cade Smith left a 1-2 fastball up to Arkansas center fielder Jace Bohrofen, and he launched it 106 mph and 19.8° to right field for his 12th homer of the season, tying him with Jared Wegner for the team lead.
Up 2-0, Razorback lefty Hagen Smith took the bump for his first start since April 22, beginning a gem of an outing with a 12-pitch inning. The sophomore went 1-2-3 again in the second before losing his perfect game, no-hitter and shutout bids in the third. Two free passes and center fielder Colton Ledbetter’s two-out single produced the Bulldogs’ first run.
Cade Smith settled down nicely after the Bohrofen home run, retiring the next 11 Arkansas batters in order. Cali finally snapped the streak with two away in the fourth, but it proved unfruitful, as left fielder Mason Neville became the sixth strikeout victim to end the inning.
Hagen Smith pitched himself into trouble again, walking one batter and plunking another for the second consecutive frame. The southpaw hunkered down, sandwiching a ground ball between his fifth and sixth strikeouts to escape with the 2-1 lead intact.
His troubles did not stop there, however, as the first four Bulldogs reached in the fifth, including three via base on balls. Perhaps the most critical play of the game was the throw catcher Parker Rowland made to nail his counterpart, Ross Highfill, trying to steal third base with nobody out.
"He just put it right on the money, honestly," Cali said. "I saw the guy go, I broke for the bag, and he just put it right there and I just put my glove down, basically. He’s been throwing dots over there."
The Bulldogs used a wild pitch and a passed ball to tie the game at two apiece, but the inning could have ended much differently without that first out.
With runners on the corners, one out and a pitch count climbing toward 100, Hagen Smith fanned his seventh and eighth batters of the evening. He finished with just one earned run and two hits allowed in five innings, but five walks, two hit batsmen and eight strikeouts amounted to 112 pitches.
"That was huge for us to get that out there," Van Horn said. "They still end up scoring a run in that inning, but Hagen got out of it."
Arkansas wasted little time getting its lead back, beginning a rally with a one-out single off the bat of designated hitter Ben McLaughlin. First baseman Brady Slavens deposited the next pitch — another elevated fastball — into the right-center field seating area for another two-run homer, the seventh by a left-handed batter against Cade Smith this season.
"We knew right when it left the bat that it was gone," Van Horn said. "It kind of erupted our dugout. It was a big swing."
Righty Cody Adcock was the first reliever tasked with protecting the 4-2 cushion, which he did flawlessly. He retired all three batters he saw on 13 pitches, turning it over to right-hander Gage Wood for the last nine outs.
The freshman nearly matched Mississippi State reliever Cole Cheatham out-for-out for two innings, with the exception of a one-out walk in the seventh.
Cali snapped his team’s dry spell at the plate, leading off with a double, his third hit of the night, in the ninth. He scored an insurance run after Neville’s sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch, and a pair of two-out walks at the bottom of the order allowed Diggs to stretch it to 6-2 with a single.
Wood danced around two more walks in the bottom of the ninth to finalize three scoreless, hitless frames and earn his fifth save of the year.
"My mindset going in there was nine out, count 'em down, and let's go win a ball game," Wood said.
With the win, 2023 marks the sixth consecutive full season in which Arkansas has produced a conference record .500 or better.
The Razorbacks and the Bulldogs will convene under the lights at Dudy Noble Field again at 6 p.m. Saturday. That contest will air on ESPN2 and stream in the ESPN app. Arkansas will start right-hander Brady Tygart, who will be on a 35-pitch count, against a Mississippi State pitcher to be announced.
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