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Arkansas once again struggled to get the clutch hit it desperately needed Tuesday night, but ended up not needing one after all.
Robert Moore raced home on a wild pitch in the 10th inning to lift the Razorbacks to a tight 2-1 win over Central Arkansas at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
It was drastically different than what transpired in their first matchup three weeks earlier in Fayetteville, a game Arkansas won 21-9 and in which the two teams combined for 32 hits.
“Honestly, I knew it was going to be low-scoring and I knew it’d be close — anytime you do that, that’s usually what happens,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “They have a good team. They’re at the top of their division right now, they’re fighting. The game in Fayetteville kind of got away from them and sometimes you just have to let it go and I think that’s what they did.”
After getting its leadoff man on in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings and failing to push him across, Arkansas looked like it might have a leadoff base runner again in the 10th.
Second baseman Tanner Leonard bobbled a ground ball, but recovered in time to throw out Dylan Leach at first. Van Horn didn’t agree with the call, though, and came out of the dugout to argue with first base umpire Augustus Griffin.
With no replay available to review the call, it was a moot point — albeit it might have had a positive impact on the team.
“I was trying to stick up for our team a little bit. We’re frustrated,” Van Horn said. “It’s a little frustration from the game on Sunday when we left the tying run on base with no outs. … I felt like he was safe. I told him he had one call to make and he missed it — something like that.”
Now fired up and with the top of the order coming to the plate, Arkansas put together what proved to be the winning inning.
Moore reached on a single and Cayden Wallace followed with a walk to put the winning run in scoring position. Michael Turner nearly ended it with a grounder up the middle, but Leonard made a diving stop to keep the ball in the infield and tossed to second for a force out.
UCA couldn’t turn the double play, though, so that put runners on the corners with two outs for Brady Slavens. After working the count full, the Arkansas slugger drew a walk that seemingly loaded the bases.
However, ball four from reliever Andrew Shoultz bounced away from catcher Connor Flagg — a defensive replacement after the Bears pinch ran for their starter in the top of the inning — to allow Moore to score from third.
It was an appropriate ending to a game that perfectly encapsulated many of the Razorbacks’ strengths and weaknesses throughout the season, which we touch on below in our key takeaways from the game…
More Struggles in Clutch Situations
Midweek games haven’t caused too much stress for Arkansas this season, but something that has plagued it on the weekends seeped into Tuesday’s performance.
Facing a pitching staff that came into the night with a 5.75 ERA, the Razorbacks squandered numerous scoring opportunities throughout the first nine innings of the game.
Aside from Leach’s RBI single in the fifth, which broke a scoreless tie, Arkansas came up empty time after time.
In the first inning, the Razorbacks wasted a pair of walks and stranded runners on the corners. The next inning, they had a runner on third with less than two outs, but left him there.
After failing to do anything with Slavens’ two-out double in the sixth, Arkansas failed to capitalize on leadoff base runners in each of the next three innings.
The seventh inning was particularly frustrating, as the Razorbacks once again had a runner on third and less than two outs after Jace Bohrofen reached on an error to start the inning, Braydon Webb followed with a single and Peyton Stovall moved them to second and third with a sacrifice bunt.
They were stranded there when Leach popped out in the infield and Moore grounded out to end the threat. Arkansas tried to manufacture something after a leadoff walk in the ninth, but Webb couldn’t lay down a sacrifice bunt and Drake Varnado — pinch running for Bohrofen — was caught stealing.
When the dust settled, Arkansas went just 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position and 2 for 18 with runners on base, period.
Most of that happened with right-hander Oliver Laufman on the mound for UCA. Making his first start of the season and coming into the night with a 10.24 ERA, he limited the Razorbacks to just one run on six hits and three walks while striking out only one of 29 batters faced in seven innings.
“I thought Laufman threw a great game for them,” Van Horn said. “Kept us off balance. We hit a lot of ground balls, we were out front. He pitched ahead of us.”
It could be chalked up to a Herculean pitching effort from an unlikely source, but Arkansas just lost an SEC series at Texas A&M because of the same issues.
In one-run losses on Friday and Sunday, the Razorbacks had the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with no outs in the seventh inning or later, but failed to plate any of them.
Already dead last in the SEC in runner-on-third, less-than-two-out situations, Arkansas lowered its success rate to 57.9 percent Tuesday night. The league-wide average before Tuesday’s midweek games was 65.0 percent and only Texas A&M (59.3%) was lower than 60 percent.
McEntire Shines
It didn’t come from one of the weekend starters, but Arkansas got yet another brilliant start against UCA. Redshirt sophomore Will McEntire gave up just one run in six innings to earn his second victory of the season.
Pitching less than 30 minutes away from his hometown of Bryant, the right-hander scattered three hits and one walk while striking out four of the 22 batters he faced.
“It felt great,” McEntire said. “I had a lot of family and friends here and I’m glad I did a good job tonight and didn’t disappoint them.”
McEntire didn’t really run into trouble until the fifth inning, when he lost his no-hitter with a leadoff single by AJ Mendolia and then gave up a one-out single to Noah Argenta. A wild pitch moved them to second and third and put the Bears in position to take the lead. Instead, he struck out Leonard and got RJ Pearson to ground out.
A leadoff double by Kolby Johnson eventually led to the lone run allowed by McEntire. He induced three straight ground outs to end his outing, but the first one by Connor Emmet moved Johnson to third and then the one by Hunter Hicks drove in the game-tying run.
Van Horn said McEntire — who recorded 12 of his 18 outs via ground outs — was “outstanding again” for the Razorbacks.
It was the third straight week he’s got the nod in a midweek game and he’s delivered each time. After not appearing in the first 31 games of the season, McEntire has posted a 1.32 ERA and limited opponents to a .174 batting average in 13 2/3 innings.
“He’s kind of proven that maybe we were sleeping at the wheel, so to speak,” Van Horn said. “Really proud of him. He threw well three times in a row.”
Another New Leadoff Man
With the Razorbacks still struggling to score runs on the weekend, Van Horn continued to tinker with his lineup Tuesday night and inserted a new name at leadoff.
After hitting Wallace in the top spot for 28 straight games, he moved Webb into that role for the final two games of the Texas A&M series. Against Central Arkansas, Van Horn penciled in Robert Moore.
The preseason All-American has been phenomenal defensively, but has struggled mightily at the plate. Hitting anywhere from 2-6 in the lineup, Moore came into Tuesday’s game with a .232 batting average — last among Arkansas’ regulars and 51 points under what he hit last season.
Van Horn actually slotted him sixth in the order in the series opener in College Station last weekend, but moved him into the leadoff spot in an effort to jump start him offensively.
“Want to get him another at bat,” Van Horn said of the move in his pregame interview with Phil Elson. “Maybe something will click up there for him. We gotta get him going a little bit.”
Despite the low batting average, Moore has still gotten on base at a good clip. That was on display in his first plate appearance, as he fouled off several pitches and worked an eight-pitch walk to start the game.
However, he struck out, grounded into a double play and grounded out with runners on second and third in his next three at bats. Moore did end the night on a high note, though, reaching on a single and eventually scoring the game-winning run.
Van Horn was non-committal about keeping him in the leadoff spot when asked about it following the game.
“I think I’ve hit four or five different guys leadoff this year and it’s been a little frustrating,” Van Horn said. “I like Robert because he can drive in runs. That’s what he does. Obviously his batting average is down this year, but he’s still got 30 RBIs.
“When he starts hitting like I know he will, I would rather have him in the middle of the order, so I don’t know yet. I’m going to sit on that and think about it a little bit.”
Other Tidbits
~As is usually the case at Dickey-Stephens Park, Arkansas played in front of a sellout crowd. The announced attendance was 10,333. The 11-year total for the North Little Rock venue is 102,671 — or an average crowd of 9,334.
~The pandemic kept them from playing there the last two seasons, but the Razorbacks played played one game at Dickey-Stephens Park every year from 2010-19. They are now 10-1 at the home of the Arkansas Travelers, the Double-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.
~With the win, Arkansas has now won 14 straight games against in-state opponents, a streak that dates back to 2019. It started after a 17-7 midweek loss to Little Rock in the Razorbacks’ first matchup with an in-state school since loosening their policy against such games. They have also won 18 consecutive midweek games since losing to Oklahoma on March 16 last year.
~Former Arkansas outfielder Trey Harris appeared in the game as a pinch runner in the 10th inning. After moving to second on a sacrifice bunt, he stole third to put the go-ahead run just 90 feet away for UCA, but he was stranded when Pearson struck out and Johnson flied out.
Up Next
The Razorbacks return to Baum-Walker Stadium for an SEC series against Ole Miss beginning Friday. After being ranked as high as No. 1 in the polls, the Rebels are reeling and current sit in last place in the SEC West at 6-16.
Game 1 of the series will be streamed on SEC Network-Plus at 6:30 p.m. CT Friday, but the next two games will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPN, with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. and noon, respectively.
