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Arkansas never trailed in its series opener at Missouri, but struggled to the put the Tigers away Friday night.
Braydon Webb finally delivered the knock-out blow with a monstrous two-run home run in the eighth inning that lifted the Razorbacks to a 7-5 win at Taylor Stadium in Columbia, Mo.
It was the 12th straight win for Arkansas, matching its longest winning streak of last season, and improved the Razorbacks to 17-3 overall and 4-0 in SEC play.
“it was one of those games where I don’t think any lead felt safe,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “Even if we’d have had a three or four-run lead, five-run lead going into the ninth, the way things had gone — we’d given up some hits but we gave up two or three bloop hits, a couple of infield hits, a couple of bunt base hits — you just never felt like the game was in control at all.”
Despite being considered one of the worst teams in the conference, Missouri didn’t just roll over and give up. Instead, the Tigers twice fought back from a two-run deficit to tie the game.
The latter of those two occasions came late in the game, with Missouri chipping away at Arkansas’ lead by scoring a run in the sixth and the seventh. It had a chance for more each time, but stranded two runners on base in both innings.
That came back to haunt the Tigers. Jalen Battles led off the eighth inning with a bloop single and hustled into second when the right fielder didn’t field it cleanly. With the go-ahead run already in scoring position, Webb had an option to lay down a drag bunt that would have moved him to third.
The super senior opted against it, though. After fouling off one 2-2 pitch from Nathan Landry, Webb crushed the next pitch for a two-run home run that put Arkansas back on top.
“Coach said that I could lay down a drag, so I was thinking about it, and then I got to a two-strike count and I was just trying to win pitches, one pitch at a time,” Webb said. “He made a mistake out over the plate and I put a good swing on it.”
The ball had an exit velocity of 104 mph and did land for 404 feet, according to Missouri’s TrackMan system, easily clearing the wall in right-center for an opposite-field blast.
“When he did make contact, when he made the swing, I knew it was gone,” Van Horn said. “He hit it to right center. That was the way the wind was blowing. I don’t know if that ball needed any help.”
It was the third straight game in which Webb has homered and the fourth time in a span of six games after starting the season 0 for 23. Since collecting his first hit of the year, Webb is 9 for 21 (.429) with 10 RBIs and only four strikeouts. That includes a hit in all four SEC games, in which he’s a combined 6 for 16. His season batting average has climbed from .000 to .205.
“He’s been big down there (in the 8-hole),” Van Horn said. “He’s a good hitter. We’ve seen it many a time. The total of home runs doesn’t surprise me one bit.
“I just like the fact he’s fighting down there and he brings a lot of defense to our team in the outfield and he brings a lot of athletic ability that we need. He gives us a guy with power down there, but also a guy that can score runs.”
Here are some other key takeaways from Friday’s win…
Tygart Slams the Door
As Van Horn mentioned, no lead felt safe against Missouri and the Tigers still had six outs to work with after Webb’s home run gave Arkansas the lead.
Having already used veterans Evan Taylor and Zebulon Vermillion with limited success, the Razorbacks turned to one of their young studs out of the bullpen to close it out.
Freshman right-hander Brady Tygart struck out all three batters he faced in the bottom of the eighth — including leadoff man Josh Day and 2-hole hitter Ross Lovich, two of Missouri’s top hitters — but things got interesting in the ninth.
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- EDGE
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- DT
