Diamond Hogs sweep Aggies
FAYETTEVILLE — Short outings and injuries left the Arkansas pitching staff with few battle-tested arms to use in Saturday’s series finale. An 8-0 lead faded to the brink of collapse as the Razorback faithful watched a sweep of Texas A&M hang in the balance of three freshman hurlers.
The tying run inched ever closer to becoming reality, reaching the on-deck circle in the sixth, the batter’s box in the seventh and the basepaths in the eighth. A leadoff homer in the ninth made it 8-7, leaving a nervous hush over Baum-Walker Stadium.
With two strikes and two outs, Aggie catcher Max Kaufer watched left-hander Parker Coil’s final offering sail over the heart of the plate. Parker Rowland pumped his fist emphatically before home plate umpire David Savage could punch the hitter out as the Razorbacks finished off the sweep.
"I knew I was probably going to get a shot today no matter the situation, if it was second inning, fifth inning, ninth, whenever it was," Coil said. "I just want to come out and kind of show that I’m able to do this thing. I’ve struggled a little bit in the beginning and have been trying to get it going, and I think today was a big stepping stone in that."
The nail-biting victory left the Razorbacks with a 14-7 record in conference games. It was their eighth straight league win at home, following a rally to beat Alabama and a sweep of Tennessee.
"We've put ourselves in position to not panic, so to speak, down the stretch," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said.
Starting pitchers Cody Adcock and Will Johnston both issued a pair of free passes in the first two innings, but none of the four proved costly. The Aggies could not move either of theirs past first base, and the Razorbacks failed to capitalize on two runners in scoring position with one out in the second.
The game’s first hit came in the form of a push bunt by shortstop John Bolton, and it began the rally Arkansas needed to strike first in the third inning.
"(I) saw the first baseman was back and I thought, ‘Might as well try it,’" Bolton said, "so I got it down. That’s how it works out."
An errant pickoff attempt allowed him to take second, and he moved to third on a wild pitch. Right fielder Kendall Diggs, who watched Bolton move to the other corner of the infield over the course of his at-bat, drove him in with a sacrifice fly.
The Razorback bats truly caught fire with two away in the third, riding three straight singles to a second run and a chance for more. Center fielder Jace Bohrofen drove in third baseman Caleb Cali, and designated hitter Ben McLaughlin kept the line moving for left fielder Hunter Grimes. A long fly ball headed for the Hog Pen died on the warning track, keeping the score 2-0.
Texas A&M was poised to break through against Adcock in the top of the fourth, finally breaking his no-hit bid up with one out. After a hit batsman and his third walk of the day, the junior found himself in a bases-loaded matchup against center fielder Jordan Thompson, who homered in each of the previous two games.
One pitch was all that was left in Adcock’s outing. A grounder to short produced the two outs he so desperately needed, and he strutted back to the first base dugout to a raucous ovation.
"Every time somebody hits a ground ball to my right I know this guy has got me," Adcock said, acknowledging Bolton. "So him and Stovall making that play today, that was huge. I think that was a big zero there. And in a must-win game, that got me fired up, so I appreciate you, Johnny."
Arkansas manufactured a third run without a hit against reliever Matt Dillard in response. The lefty walked two batters, Bolton executed a sacrifice bunt and Diggs came through with his second sac fly in as many innings.
"You’ve just got to try to get somebody to third with less than two outs and punch in a run and that’s kind of what we were trying to do," Van Horn said.
The 3-0 cushion was left-hander Zack Morris’ to protect with 15 outs left to record. The Cabot native kept the shutout intact, working around a one-out single, and his job got immensely easier with five runs of support in the bottom of the fifth.
Two walks, three hits and two errors were the recipe for the Hogs’ second five-spot of the series. McLaughlin collected an RBI on a single to second base. Grimes tried to sacrifice himself to get two runners over, but the Aggies could not even put him away, and the fielding error cost them another run.
Bolton drove in his fourth and fifth runs against SEC opponents with his second hit of the day, and a wild throw from right field allowed the eighth Arkansas run to come home.
"You’ve got to show up to the field every day with the confidence that today’s the day you bounce back," Bolton said. "Baseball’s a tough game, and when you struggle for that long it gets tough, but today was the day I bounced back, so hopefully we can keep it going, get that confidence up."
Things got hairy in the top of the sixth, which began with an 8-0 Razorback lead and ended with the tying run in the on-deck circle. Morris left with two outs and the bases loaded, and right-hander Christian Foutch allowed all three runners to score. It took fellow freshman Ben Bybee to record the third out, which eluded them for five hitters.
Two doubles and two walks brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh, but the Aggies settled for two runs and an 8-5 deficit.
Second baseman Peyton Stovall cost the Razorbacks another run in the eighth, committing a fielding error to start the frame. With runners on the corners, he botched the transfer on what looked to be a double play ball, awarding Aggie third baseman Trevor Werner an RBI fielder’s choice to make it 8-6.
"Peyton’s arm is bothering him," Van Horn said. "We all know it. He knows it."
Left-hander Parker Coil, the third straight freshman to hear his name called in the bullpen, took over with one out instead of two, and he was able to induce the twin killing necessary to escape with the lead at two runs.
Left fielder Jace LaViolette lined a homer to right to keep the pressure high in the ninth, but Coil retired the next three hitters in order to secure a save in his first SEC appearance.
"I was proud of our guys for hanging in there," Van Horn said, "hanging in there and winning the game and sweeping an SEC series, which is really hard to do."
The Razorbacks’ next four games will come away from Baum-Walker Stadium, beginning with the annual midweek game at North Little Rock’s Dickey-Stephens Park at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The contest against Lipscomb will not be broadcast or streamed on TV.
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