ATHENS, Ga. — When No. 5 Arkansas takes the diamond Saturday at Foley Field, it will be in a position it has yet to deal with this season.
That position is trying to stave off a sweep, because Georgia pounded the Razorbacks for seven consecutive runs Friday, one-upping its effort the day before. A three-spot in the eighth is usually a game-changer for the Diamond hogs, but it was merely white noise as the home team prevailed 7-3 to claim the series.
"We’ve been out-played, pretty much in every aspect of the game, you know, fielding, hitting, baserunning, pitching," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. "They’ve kind of gotten after us. It’s a long season. You can’t be all happy with what went on last week."
The Razorbacks struggled early and often against Georgia starter Charlie Goldstein, who had strung three strong starts against Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Florida together entering Friday. The left-hander retired them in order the first two times through the order, and he had a 4-0 cushion to work with when he took the mound in the third.
Arkansas starter Will McEntire sat down four of his first five batters, including three via strikes, but the lower half of the order posed a much bigger problem for the righty.
With one away in the second, three of the last four Bulldogs in the order took McEntire deep to left field, and the other scored on a walk.
Designated hitter Cole Wagner, who got the home run party started, stretched the lead to 5-0 in the third with a two-out RBI single.
Goldstein allowed baserunners on either side of that half-inning, but both got themselves thrown out to end the innings. Shortstop Harold Coll busted up the perfect game and the no-hitter with a leadoff single in the third but was caught stealing. Left fielder Jace Bohrofen legged out a hustle double before running himself into a pickle with third baseman Caleb Cali at the plate.
"The rule is with us in that situation is you have to go first movement off that lefty, and if you don’t get a jump, you just stop, and he got a horrible jump," Van Horn said. "He knows it. That’s just the way it is.
"And then Jace getting picked off second, there’s no reason for that. That’s ridiculous."
Batting practice resumed for the bottom of the Bulldog order in the home half of the fourth, as catcher Fernando Gonzalez, hitting eighth, cleared the left field fence for the second time in as many days. With that, Georgia led 6-0 with all six RBIs coming from the last four hitters, each of whom homered.
After another unfruitful Arkansas half-inning, right-hander Cody Adcock took over for McEntire, whose hit, run and strikeout totals were all six.
"He threw some good breaking balls early, but obviously they clubbed him in the second," Van Horn said. "When he made a mistake, they hammered it. When he left it up or in. Those were all pull-side home runs. It was a good job of hitting by them. What else can I say? It was pretty obvious."
The junior from Texarkana retired the Bulldogs in order in the fifth, marking the first time that had been done all evening. They were not done growing the lead, however, tagging him for three hits in the sixth to make it 7-0. Adcock induced a 4-6-3 double play in the seventh to finish off his third inning of work.
"He threw real good," Van Horn said. "Best he’s thrown in a long time. He was spotting his fastball to the glove-hand side, threw some good, hard breaking balls and really did a nice job. It was good to see."
A glimpse of relief finally came in the seventh, though, as Goldstein’s quality start finally reached its end. Righty Chandler Marsh took over after six shutout innings, in which the starter faced just one more than the minimum.
"The pitcher, he threw really well," Van Horn said. "We didn’t do a good job, obviously."
Marsh recorded a pair of loud outs before issuing a pair of walks, the only time the Razorbacks had multiple men aboard. Unfortunately for them, it did not turn into anything productive, as second baseman Peyton Stovall popped up to end the seventh.
Coll and Brady Slavens finally broke through in the eighth, when the first baseman belted a 377-foot homer to right-center field to score the shortstop after his leadoff double. The longball snapped the two-game drought and chased Marsh from the game.
Up 7-2, Georgia called on Dalton Rhadans, who earned the save Thursday, to stop the rally. The righty allowed the first double of the season to catcher Hudson Polk, who scored on left fielder Jace Bohrofen’s sacrifice fly.
Cali recorded his second hit of the game and fourth of the series with two outs, moving the tying run into the on-deck circle, but that was as close as it got. Left-hander Zack Morris worked a scoreless eighth with the help of a Bohrofen outfield assist, but a 1-2-3 top of the ninth put a bow on the Bulldogs’ second straight victory over the Hogs.
"There’s no easy wins on the schedule," Van Horn said. "We’re going to have to play a lot better than we have the last two days."
Having lost its first series in four weeks, Arkansas will try to salvage a win at 1 p.m. CT Saturday in a contest that will stream live on SEC Network Plus. Left-hander Liam Sullivan will get the ball for the Bulldogs against fellow southpaw Hagen Smith.
"Everything is still right in front of us," Bohrofen said. "We can get out of here with one win, and that's the most important thing right now is just 'How do we get out of here with one win?' So we'll get the guys ready to go tomorrow, and we'll take care of business."
