College students, get a year of HawgBeat coverage for just $11.95! Request details via email from your school account (.edu) to andrewhutchinson413 (at) gmail (dot) com.
FAYETTEVILLE — Robert Moore couldn’t afford extra innings. He had something else he needed to take care of Thursday night.
The slumping junior delivered the tie-breaking two-run single with two outs in the seventh and then turned a critical double play in the eighth to preserve Arkansas’ 5-4 win over LSU before hustling out of Baum-Walker Stadium to complete an important homework assignment due at midnight.
Those clutch plays lifted the Razorbacks to their fifth straight series-opening victory over the Tigers and moved them one game closer to a third straight series win against them.
“It was a very interesting baseball game,” head coach Dave Van Horn said afterward. “A little stressful, but like I said earlier, big win for our team.”
Arkansas saw its 2-0 lead disappear in the sixth and still trailed 3-2 at the stretch.
On the verge of squandering Cayden Wallace’s leadoff single, the Razorbacks put together a two-out rally in the seventh. Michael Turner reached on a grounder up the middle that was ruled a single, but probably could have been fielded for an out by shortstop Jordan Thompson.
That kept the inning alive and Braydon Webb got just enough of Devin Fontenot’s 1-2 pitch to hit it up the middle for an infield single. Thompson managed to get to it at the outfield grass, but Wallace never stopped running and scored when the throw home was off line.
“Hits were hard to come by and their bullpen’s been really good lately — they kept bringing them in left and right and velo guys,” Van Horn said. “Sometimes you just have to take a chance, especially (on a) ground ball, ball’s probably a little wet by the time he gets it. It worked out.”
A wild pitch by Eric Reyzelman moved the runners to second and third and set the stage for Moore’s two-run single, which was scorched toward second baseman Cade Doughty and ate him up.
Prior to that hit, Moore — a preseason All-American by most outlets — had been hitting just .200 in SEC and had only one hit in his previous 17 at bats.
“I think his confidence should have jumped up a little bit tonight,” Van Horn said. “He’s been fighting it a little bit, working extremely hard, coming in early, staying late, one-on-one with Coach (Nate) Thompson a lot.”
That swing gave the Razorbacks a 5-3 lead, but the game was far from over.
LSU used a catcher’s interference and two bloop singles to scratch across a run in the eighth and was threatening to tie it up or take the lead, as Josh Pearson drew a two-out walk to load the bases.
However, Thompson hit a ball up the middle and right into the shift, as Moore fielded it on one hop, stepped on second and fired to first to complete the inning-ending double play.
“To get that double-play ball, that was huge,” Van Horn said. “It was a breaking ball hit off the end of the bat. We had Robert up the middle, and obviously he fielded it and knew exactly what to do — run to the bag and flip it to first.”
Here are some other key takeaways from the Razorbacks’ win over LSU on Thursday…
Noland’s No-Hit Bid
For five innings Thursday night, Connor Noland was untouchable. The Arkansas ace retired the first nine batters he faced and took a no-hitter into the sixth.
He appeared to be well on his way to another gem, sitting at 70 pitches through five innings and on pace to likely make it through the seventh inning for a third straight week, but ran into issues his third time through the lineup.
Dylan Crews notched LSU’s first hit of the game with a two-out single up the middle and then Jacob Berry, Doughty and Pearson each hit RBI singles to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead.
“The top of their order is as good as any in the country with (Tre’) Morgan, Crews and Berry — even their cleanup hitter (Doughty), he’s got big numbers as well,” Van Horn said. “That inning happened so quickly, we didn’t really have a chance to get anybody loose. Hindsight’s 20-20. Maybe we needed a lefty hot there for a hitter.”
