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Arkansas homered three times in the first inning to silence a packed Dudy Noble Stadium and knock off Mississippi State in the first game of their series.

Matt Goodheart, Cayden Wallace and Christian Franklin each hit solo home runs off the Bulldogs' ace to provide the spark and pitching carried the Razorbacks the rest of the way to an 8-2 win in Starkville, Miss.

The victory came in front of a crowd that was officially listed at 6,116, but estimated to be closer to 12,000 for Mississippi State's SEC home opener, as the state of Mississippi has lifted his COVID-19 restrictions for outdoor sporting events.

“It was an electric crowd,” Franklin said. “We knew it was going to be a tough situation to be in that environment. I think the team did a good job of not getting sped up in those situations. We just played our game.”

Patrick Wicklander started the game and went five innings, allowing one run on two hits and four walks, and striking out three.

Peyton Pallette came on in relief and pitched the last four innings. He retired the first eight batters he faced and allowed just one run on two hits and a walk, all in the ninth inning.

“He was really upset with himself last week,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “We told him we were going to bring him in right after, if Patrick got tired or it was time to get him. He did a tremendous job. He gave us an opportunity to save the rest of our pitchers for the next couple of games because we’re going to need them all.”

The Razorbacks got off to a fantastic start with the aforementioned first-inning home runs. Goodheart and Wallace went back-to-back off potential first-round pick Christian MacLeod and Franklin added his own long ball - an opposite-field shot - two batters later.

Franklin went deep for the second time in the game - and sixth of the season - in the fourth inning when he launched a ball way over the left field wall.

The Razorbacks loaded the bases with no outs later in the inning, but only pushed across one more run. Robert Moore hit a sacrifice fly to score a run, but Jalen Battles was thrown out trying to tag up from first.

Mississippi State took out MacLeod following that play and replaced him with Stone Simmons, who ended the inning with a strikeout and retired the first seven Razorbacks he faced.

MacLeod had allowed only four earned runs in 20 1/3 innings across his first five starts of the season, good for a 1.74 ERA, but was charged with five in 3 2/3 innings against Arkansas.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Bulldogs got their first run and only two hits off of Wicklander, scoring on a pair of singles - the second of which was an RBI for Rowdey Jordan.

Battles singled and Braydon Webb walked in the top of the seventh inning before Goodheart and Brady Slavens each came up with an RBI single to put Arkansas up 7-1.

The bottom half of the inning started with a spectacular diving catch by Franklin in center field.

“At first I took a deeper route to it, because I thought the ball was going to carry a lot more, because the ball flies really well in that park,” Franklin said. “But it wasn’t flying as much, so I had to adjust my route and come in and was luckily able to make a great play for my pitcher, Peyton, in that moment.”

That catch was just the highlight of an excellent defensive game for the Razorbacks. They had no errors and made several tough plays in the field.

“We played outstanding defense,” Van Horn said. “(We) turned a couple double plays, Battles made a play up the middle that was unbelievable, Robert made a nice play to his left, Franklin made an incredible catch in center field.

"That was big because the game wasn’t in control yet and that was their leadoff hitter. That ended up being a really big play for us. All the way around, we fielded the ball, we pitched well and we had some big hits.”

Webb reached on an error to lead off the ninth, stole second and got to third on a wild pitch. Slavens brought him home again with another RBI single, giving him a team-leading 22 RBIs.

In the bottom of the inning, the Bulldogs got their walk and two hits off of Pallette to score another run, but fell short of a miraculous comeback.

Arkansas will try to clinch its series at Mississippi State at 2 p.m. CT Saturday. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network-Plus.