Hogs blow out Memphis with big 8th inning

Arkansas built an early lead Tuesday night and blew it open late.

Three home runs - including a grand slam by Jacob Nesbit - highlighted a nine-run eighth inning in the Razorbacks’ 14-1 win over Memphis at Baum-Walker Stadium.

It was the third straight victory for Arkansas, which improved to 15-3, while the Tigers fell to 9-9 on the season.

“It took us a little while to get it going there, obviously, with a big inning in the eighth,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “But we put together some innings earlier that were maybe one hit, some walks, some hit by pitches, getting pitch counts up. … It was nice to see a little bit of pop there in that eighth inning and put that thing away.”

Two-out singles by Cayden Wallace and Charlie Welch in the first two innings played a big part in the Razorbacks jumping out to a 4-0 lead.

The first of those hits was a hard line into center by Wallace to start the scoring in the first, while the other was a blooper by Welch that found the grass in shallow left field to drive in a pair of runs in the second.

Welch actually had Arkansas’ only hit in the second inning, as Memphis starter Dalton Kendrick issued four free passes - including a bases-loaded walk to Christian Franklin - before giving up the hit.

That was all the offense the Razorbacks needed, but Nesbit beat out an infield single with the bases loaded to tack on another run in the seventh before the nine-run explosion in the eighth.

It started with a first-pitch home run by Braydon Webb and then, a few batters later, Wallace crushed a two-run homer deep into the Hog Pen.

“I was hoping he'd throw another curveball like he did because I had just chased one and watched one before that and fouled one,” Wallace said. “So I assumed he was going to go back there. He did and left it hanging. I just tried to stay through it.”

A grand slam by Nesbit turned it into a true blowout before back-to-back RBI doubles by Franklin and Zack Gregory - who pinch ran for Welch earlier in the inning - capped the scoring in an inning that saw 14 Arkansas batters come to the plate.

“It was a good game up to that point and everybody was just pulling for each other,” Webb said. “That’s what our offense is capable of and you never know when we’re going to explode like that.”

Great Day for Webb

Webb’s final stat line may show only one hit, but it was an impressive one. The aforementioned first-pitch homer landed beyond the seats behind the left field bullpen.

He said afterward that he was just looking for something over the plate that he could do damage with and luckily reliever James Muse threw an off-speed pitch in his wheelhouse. It was Webb’s first home run of 2021 and seemed to spark the eighth-inning outburst.

“He had a great swing,” Wallace said. “I kind of felt like it was going to come at some point. It fired us up pretty well and the dugout was electric.”

While that was his lone hit, it was also his lone official at bat. In four previous plate appearances, he was hit by a pitch and drew three walks.

Memphis pitchers threw him only two strikes in those three walks and then he walked a fourth time later in the eighth inning after fouling off a couple of pitches.

“I’m just trying to take what the game gives me,” Webb said. “It’s a little bit (frustrating), but you can’t force the action because once you start doing that, you kind of get out of control of yourself and that’s when it kind of spirals downward.”