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FAYETTEVILLE — With the SEC crown already in hand, Arkansas took a victory lap Saturday afternoon at the expense of Florida.
The Razorbacks exploded for seven runs in the seventh inning of a tie game and cruised to a 9-3 win that completed a sweep of the No. 8 Gators at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Despite not having anything to play for and treating it almost like a midweek game, with a pair of freshman backups in the lineup and a steady rotation of pitchers seeing the mound, Arkansas tied a school record with its 22nd SEC win.
That made the Razorbacks 42-10 overall and 22-8 in conference play, a full two games ahead of Tennessee and Mississippi State in the standings.
“There was no motivation speeches about playing hard and let’s go ahead and win this,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “I just told them to play hard and get after it. … I didn’t have to get into anything about trying to get them to want to be there.
“They showed up and got after it and that’s this team. That’s the ’21 team. They’re something else.”
It was actually pretty tight for most of the game, but two swings by Brady Slavens were the catalysts to the Razorbacks putting Florida away on Saturday.
The first came in the fourth inning, when it was still scoreless. After a leadoff single by Cayden Wallace, Franco Aleman’s 0-1 fastball caught too much of the plate and Slavens made him pay.
The pitch was a little outside and the first baseman went went it, crushing it over the left field bullpen for an impressive opposite-field, two-run home run that put Arkansas up 2-0.
“I think it kind of shocked them over there in their dugout,” Van Horn said. “It caught them off guard. You’ve got a left-handed hitter that goes oppo and it was way out. It jumped. It was a no-doubter off the bat.”
Although the Gators managed to tie it back up with runs in the fifth and sixth, the Razorbacks jumped all over them in the home half of the seventh.
Arkansas had already plated four runs and had firm control of the momentum, but Slavens provided the final knock-out blow when Jordan Butler left an 0-1 fastball up and he hit it over the right field wall for a three-run home run.
“The second swing was off the left-hander that hadn’t given up a hit to a lefty all season,” Van Horn said. “Lefties were 0 of 12 against him and he hit that against the wind, probably about 380 feet. If it hand’t been for the wind, it probably would have gone over the scoreboard.”
Those were Slavens’ only hits in the game, as he finished 2 for 4 with five RBIs. It was a dramatic turnaround from his performance in the first two games of the series, in which he was a combined 0 for 8 with five strikeouts.
“I was just trying to hit the ball hard, honestly,” Slavens said. “Having struggled the last two games, I was just trying to drive in some runs and put the ball in play hard."
By winning Saturday, Arkansas secured just its second SEC series sweep of the season - and both have come against top-10 teams. In addition to Florida, the Razorbacks - who took their other eight series 2-1 - also won all three games at Mississippi State earlier in the season.
“We’re just finding ways to win,” Van Horn said. “There’s really not a whole lot I can say about it. I feel very fortunate to beat that good of a team three times on a weekend. It’s hard enough to beat them once, much less three (times).”
Wiggins’ 1st SEC Start
Because the championship was already in the bag, Van Horn had some freedom for the regular-season finale and used it to give freshman Jaxon Wiggins his first career SEC start.
The right-hander gave the Razorbacks three scoreless innings on an efficient 43 pitches, striking out two and allowing only two hits. Command has sometimes been an issue, but Wiggins threw 31 strikes and didn’t issue any walks.
“I thought Wiggins came out and threw the ball really well,” Van Horn said. “Pitched to contact more than normal, which is fine with us. The strikeouts will get better when the off speed stuff starts to develop a little bit.”
Van Horn said he did land a couple of changeups for strikes, as well as one slider and one cutter, but he mostly relied on locating his fastball, which touched 99 mph on the stadium radar gun several times.
