HOOVER, Ala. — For about a month, Arkansas had one of the hottest lineups in the country. Its bats have cooled considerably, though, in the last couple of weeks.

The Razorbacks managed just five hits for the third straight day, resulting in another late blown lead and a 3-2 loss to Ole Miss that ended their run at the 2019 SEC Tournament on Friday.

It was the continuation of a trend that started with the LSU series finale, a span of seven games in which Arkansas has averaged only 2.9 runs, struck out in 30.3 percent of its at bats and hit .199/.275/.333 as a team.

Head coach Dave Van Horn was directly asked about those struggles after both losses in Hoover and it was evident in his responses that the usually calm, level-headed coach was frustrated. However, he was still optimistic that they won’t continue when they return home for next week’s NCAA Regional.

“Yes, there is a concern because if we don’t hit and score, we’re not going to win,” Van Horn said. “That’s pretty obvious. We’re going to get home, we’re going to go back to work and we’ll starting driving in runs.”

The recent team-wide slump has been a dramatic fall off from the Razorbacks’ production during the previous 16 games, when they climbed into the top 10 nationally in several offensive categories.

From April 14 to May 10, they reached double-digit runs 10 times, averaged 10.8 runs per game and hit an incredible .363/.464/.630 as a team. Their strikeout rate was also 24.9 percent.

“Honestly, I’m not too concerned about our offensive struggles here recently,” designated hitter Matt Goodheart said. “I know what this team is capable of doing and I hope they know, too, because we can really swing the bats whenever things are really clicking.”

For a brief moment in the fourth inning of Friday’s loss, it seemed like Arkansas might bust out of its funk. Goodheart broke up Gunnar Hoglund’s no-hitter with a two-run home run to center and then Dominic Fletcher and Heston Kjerstad followed with back-to-back singles on consecutive pitches.

The Razorbacks were jumping all over the Ole Miss freshman and were poised for a big inning. Jack Kenley nearly made it three straight hits on three pitches, but his was a rocket right at first baseman Cole Zabowski for the second out of the inning.

“That’s kind of the way we do it a little bit; we can steamroll you pretty quick,” Van Horn said. “Unfortunately, Kenley’s line drive went right to the first baseman. If it’s 10 feet another direction… (But) that’s the way the game works.”

Mistakes by the Rebels - an error, walk and hit by pitch - gave Arkansas another opportunity to add to its lead the very next inning, loading the bases with two outs.

However, after taking a ball, Fletcher hit a shallow pop up into left field to end the threat. Van Horn said he would have liked to see him take that pitch, rather than trying too hard to do too much.

“It’s really sometimes more about that two-out hit,” Van Horn said. “We had the bases loaded and two outs, 1-0 count, Fletcher goes for a pitch that’s down and away instead of waiting for a better pitch. Those are the things that we have to clean up.”

Timely hits in situations like that have also eluded the Razorbacks during this seven-game stretch.

They are hitting poorly (.172) with runners on base, even worse with runners in scoring position (.138) and are hitless in eight at bats with the bases loaded.

In the first 51 games of the season, Arkansas actually got better as the situations got bigger, hitting .329 with runners on base, .331 with runners in scoring position and .333 with the bases loaded.

“Well, I’d like to see base hits; I don’t know what else I can tell you,” Van Horn said after Thursday’s loss to Georgia. “Obviously we needed to do a better job, but I just need to see some guys hit the ball hard with runners in scoring position.”

Perspective is also important when looking at Arkansas' numbers. Its final regular-season series was on the road against Texas A&M, which has the best pitching staff in the conference and a top-five staff nationally, and pitching has dominated this year’s SEC Tournament.

Over the first four days of the event, teams are averaging 3.6 runs per nine innings with a combined batting average of .214. Remove Vanderbilt’s 11-run outburst against Auburn and LSU’s 12-run outing against Mississippi State and those figures drop to under three runs per nine innings (2.96) and below the Mendoza Line (.199).

The Aggies had starting pitchers throw 7 1/3 and 8 hitless innings in consecutive games and didn’t win either one. SEC Pitcher of the Year Ethan Small struck out 11 and gave up just one run in seven innings against Vanderbilt’s potent offense and got the loss for Mississippi State.

“This is the deepest I’ve ever seen the pitching in this league,” Van Horn said. “There’s a lot of guys that throw really hard, but there’s also some guys that can just pitch.

“It just seems like now that we’re all here together, it’s right after the final game of the season, teams are just a little tired swinging the bats and the pitchers are on their game a little bit.”

That is particularly true for the Razorbacks, Van Horn said, because they have been away from Fayetteville for 10 straight days after going to Hoover immediately after their series at Texas A&M.

He is confident that the early exit from the SEC Tournament will benefit the slumping hitters by giving them a few extra days off before the most important games of the season and added that getting back to the friendly confines of Baum-Walker Stadium as a likely top-eight national seed would also probably help.

“I think we’re a little tired,” Van Horn said. “We just need to get back home and regroup a little bit and start scoring some runs. If you look at it, we had some guys that didn’t hit at all.

“We lost a two-run game and a one-run game, and we didn’t do anything. Our pitching did a pretty good job for the most part, defense was pretty good. We’ll be fine.”

The NCAA will officially announce the 16 regional host sites at 7:30 p.m. Sunday on its website and social media accounts before revealing the entire bracket at 11 a.m. Monday on ESPNU.

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