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Arkansas found yet another way to rally and stay undefeated Friday night.
After the Razorbacks scored three runs in the eighth to tie it, Jalen Battles launched a two-run home run in the 10th to lift them to a 9-7 win over Louisiana Tech at J.C. Love Field in Ruston, La.
It was the fifth time Arkansas has rallied in the eighth inning or later en route to a perfect 11-0 record, which is the second-best start to a season in recorded UA history. Only the 1996 team, which won its first 18 games, had a better start in the past 61 years.
“We just seem to score in many different ways,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “I think sometimes when you start winning, you come from behind, you just believe you can come from behind and you do.”
Back-to-back walks to Cayden Wallace and Brady Slavens to start the eighth inning sparked the rally, but it wasn’t until there were two outs that Arkansas finally broke through - with the help of two free passes to the bottom of its order.
Battles drew a walk to load the bases and then Zack Gregory was hit by a pitch to drive in a run and pull the Razorbacks within 7-5. With the bases still loaded, Robert Moore slapped a single into right that brought in two more to tie it up.
“We feel like our lineup’s real deep and that we can score in every inning,” Van Horn said. “It’s not like it really tapers off. I have really tried to mix and match the lineup all the way to the end. I don’t load all of the top hitters up top.”
When asked why it is so difficult to finish off a win over Arkansas, Louisiana Tech head coach Lane Burroughs pointed to that depth as the primary reason.
“They have nine real hitters,” Burroughs said. “It’s a hard lineup to navigate. … They’re so athletic and they are so physical, they can drive the ball out of the ballpark like they did there in the 10th and they can run. It’s just a long lineup. There’s not a weak-link, really, in their lineup and I think that makes it tough on any bullpen.”
A great diving snag by third baseman Hunter Wells turned a likely go-ahead RBI by Casey Opitz into an inning-ending double play in the ninth, but there was nothing the Bulldogs’ defense could have done to keep Arkansas from scoring in the 10th.
Charlie Welch got things started with a leadoff pinch-hit double down the left field line to set up the game-winning hit by Battles, who crushed a 3-1 pitch by Cade Gibson off the apartment complex beyond the left field wall. Some eye-witness accounts said it even went through a window.
“It’s a disappointing loss, it hurts,” Burroughs said. “It’s going to be hard to get over this one, but you have to put it behind you and you have to come out and play at a high level or a team like Arkansas, if you don’t, they will embarrass you and they will bury you tomorrow.”
Early Lead
As has become customary with this Arkansas team, it struggled to get anything going offensively in the first few innings of the game.
Louisiana Tech ace Jonathan Fincher threw a few breaking balls to keep the Razorbacks honest, but mostly attacked with his fastball and it worked the first time through the order.
Through three innings, the left-hander had thrown only 34 pitches and allowed just two base runners, both on full-count walks. One of those runners, Battles in the third, was picked off, plus Fincher had three first-pitch outs to keep his pitch count low.
“Finch just attacks the strike zone,” Burroughs said. “He does it with his fastball and he can command his fastball at a very high level. That’s kind of what we went with tonight. He’s a spin-rate guy - it’s 88 (mph), but it looks 93. It plays up because he’s got so much spin on the ball.”
Seeing him for the second time, though, Arkansas jumped all over Fincher. In the span of five pitches in the fourth inning, the Razorbacks took a 3-0 lead.
It started when Christian Franklin reached via a leadoff error on a play that could have easily been ruled a hit. Taking advantage of the ballpark’s small dimensions Matt Goodheart hit a two-run home run to right-center on the very next pitch.
First-pitch swinging again, the Razorbacks got a double off the bat of Wallace, who scored on Slavens’ RBI single on an 0-1 pitch from Fincher.
“It was kind of weird,” Burroughs said. “I don’t know if the radar gun was working correctly. He went from 90 to 83-84. It was kind of crazy. It seemed like he hit a wall. His velocity definitely dropped that one inning.”
Fincher eventually settled back in, though, getting three straight strikeouts to end that inning and eventually retiring seven straight.
