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A rare defensive miscue by Arkansas proved to be the difference in a classic Friday night SEC pitchers’ duel.
Cayden Wallace’s throwing error to start the fourth inning ultimately led to a pair of unearned runs and that was all Texas A&M needed in a 2-1 win over the Razorbacks at Blue Bell Park in College Station, Texas.
The loss snapped Arkansas’ impressive 12-game winning streak in conference series openers, with its last loss also coming by a 2-1 final score against Auburn last year. It was the Razorbacks’ first SEC series-opening loss on the road since 2019, as well, ending a nine-game winning streak.
“It’s just disappointing, because we had so many opportunities there in two innings to tie the game, take the lead, break it open,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “It’s disappointing we didn’t win, but we still have an opportunity to win the series. We have to win tomorrow obviously.”
It didn’t seem like a game-altering play when Dylan Rock hit a grounder to the left side to lead off the fourth. Arkansas ace Connor Noland still hadn’t allowed a hit and the Razorbacks entered the weekend with the second-best fielding percentage in Division I at .986.
However, after moving to his left and fielding the ball cleanly, Wallace’s throw to first was low and Peyton Stovall couldn’t pick it. It got past him and went into the dugout, putting Rock in scoring position with no outs.
“I think Wallace backed up on the play to get a better hop, but then he took just a split second too long to get rid of it and he really loaded up,” Van Horn said. “He threw it really hard, but it wasn’t super accurate. I think Peyton catches that ball nine times out of 10.”
Two batters later, Texas A&M made Arkansas pay for the mistake. Troy Claunch lined a single into left field for the Aggies’ first hit of the game, which gave them a 1-0 lead.
Texas A&M’s next two hitters also reached, via a walk by Ryan Targac and bloop single by Austin Bost, to load the bases with just one out. Noland got Trevor Werner to fly out, but then issued a four-pitch walk to Kole Kaler to bring in the what ended up being the game-winning run.
Here are several other key takeaways from Friday night’s loss…
Struggles with RISP
What made the loss so hard to swallow for the Razorbacks is, as Van Horn said, they had several chances to at least tie the game or even put together a big inning.
Arkansas’ first two batters reached in back-to-back innings in the sixth and seventh, but it managed just one run. It finished the game 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position, including five strikeouts. Three of those strikeouts came with a runner on third and less than two outs.
The lone hit was courtesy of Michael Turner, who lined a two-out RBI single into right field to pull the Razorbacks within 2-1 in the sixth.
Prior to that base knock, Brady Slavens managed to move a runner up on a fly out to right, but Chris Lanzilli struck out with runners on the corners. With the tying run on third, Jalen Battles looked at strike three to end the inning.
