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FAYETTEVILLE — The game was never really in doubt, but Arkansas didn’t blow it open against Arkansas State until the seventh inning Tuesday night.
Brady Slavens blasted a two-out grand slam to put a bow on the Razorbacks’ 10-1 win over the Red Wolves at Baum-Walker Stadium in just the second ever meeting between the teams on the baseball diamond.
Although Arkansas had built a five-run lead, Arkansas State managed to hang around thanks to the Razorbacks going 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position before Slavens’ big swing.
“That was real nice,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “We had already scored one run in that inning on maybe one or two hits and about three walks. They were just about to get out of it and we were just hoping to get a single, knock in a couple more, and he went opposite field with that pitch and just drove it and it sliced out of the park.”
It had a chance to turn into a blowout much earlier.
The Razorbacks jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Robert Moore followed Michael Turner’s two-out single with a 363-foot line drive that cleared the right field wall despite a strong wind blowing in.
After stranding runners on the corners in the second, Arkansas loaded the bases with no outs in the third, but managed just one run on a Jace Bohrofen sacrifice fly.
Loading the bases again in the fifth, this time with two outs, the Razorbacks scratched across a pair of runs thanks to back-to-back walks by Zack Gregory and Peyton Stovall.
Arkansas made it 6-1 when Jalen Battles hit a line drive into the right-center gap following a leadoff walk by Jace Bohrofen, who actually took off on the pitch Battles doubled on and easily scored.
“It wasn’t a hit-and-run, it was a straight steal on a 2-1 count,” Van Horn said. “I thought he got a great jump. He would have stole it, and Battles just took a pitch down the middle away and hit it the other way.”
A couple more walks set the stage for Slavens’ grand slam that finally gave Arkansas the cushion needed to feel comfortable about its lead.
Here are several other key takeaways from the win…
Ramage Solid Again
Ever since earning the loss in Arkansas’ 12-inning loss to Mississippi State, right-hander Kole Ramage has been very good for the Razorbacks.
He hasn’t allowed an earned run over his last three appearances, which total nine innings. Of course, two of those have been three-inning starts against UAPB and Arkansas State, but the super senior also threw three shutout innings against Florida.
Against the Red Wolves, Ramage allowed a leadoff walk in the second inning to snap a streak of 16 consecutive batters retired. It likely should have been another scoreless outing, but Battles booted a ground ball that would have been the third out and that runner eventually came around to score an unearned run.
That was aided by a wild pitch, as it set up Cooper Tremmel’s two-out RBI single, but Ramage bounced back with an effective third inning in which he retired Arkansas State in order on just nine pitches.
