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FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas and Mississippi State faced nearly identical situations early in Saturday’s game, but had vastly different results and it set the tone for the rest of the night.
After limiting the Bulldogs to one run in the first inning, the Razorbacks answered with four in the second en route to a series-clinching 12-5 win at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Both starting pitchers walked the bases loaded with just one out within the first two innings. While Arkansas’ Hagen Smith managed to get out of the jam with a sacrifice fly and strikeout, it was not as smooth for Mississippi State’s Parker Stinnett.
The right-hander nearly escaped it unscathed, but Jalen Battles beat the relay throw to first to prevent a double play and tie it up with an RBI fielder’s choice.
The Razorbacks didn’t stop there. After Zack Gregory was hit by a pitch to load the bases again, Cayden Wallace singled through the shift to drive in two runs. He scorched a grounder that found a hole despite there being three Bulldogs on the left side of the infield.
“We just kept chipping away, fouling off pitches, walking, getting hit by pitches and then got a couple of big hits,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “Wallace’s big hit through the shift, he hit it hard, scored a couple of runs and just kept building up that lead.”
Stinnett was finally pulled after a wild pitch brought in the fourth run of inning. From there, the rout was on.
Arkansas added another four runs in the third thanks to a two-run home run by Brady Slavens and two-run double by Wallace, then got back-to-back homers from Chris Lanzilli and Robert Moore in the fourth.
The long ball by Slavens was particularly important because he came after the Razorbacks grounded into a double play and put them up 6-1.
“That was a huge swing at the time,” Van Horn said. “I’m not going to say it was a back-breaker, but it sure slowed down any momentum they were looking to get by getting out of that inning.”
Zack Gregory started the fifth by launching a home run over the scoreboard and the Razorbacks tacked on their final run with an RBI double by Slavens in the sixth.
It was a continuation of the hot hitting that started in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s midweek win over Little Rock. Between then and the sixth inning of Saturday’s win, Arkansas put up 34 runs in 20 innings, blasted nine home runs and hit .329 as a team.
“We're starting to click together as a team,” Slavens said. “Honestly warm weather, that definitely helps. We have not played in very good weather this year, whether that's wind blowing in or it's freezing outside. I think we like playing with short sleeves on or no sleeves at all."
Here are some other key takeaways from Saturday’s win over Mississippi State…
Smith Settles In
After getting leadoff man Luke Hancock to ground out to shortstop to start the game, freshman Hagen Smith suddenly couldn’t find the strike zone.
Making just his third career SEC start, the left-hander issued three straight walks to load the bases in the first inning. Van Horn told reporters that he believed it was because he was “a little too amped up.”
The game could have easily gotten away from Smith, forcing the Razorbacks to turn to their bullpen early, but he got Kellum Clark to fly out to center for a sacrifice fly and then got Brad Cumbest to look at strike three.
“We were a little nervous,” Van Horn said. “We had a freshman out there pitching against Mississippi State. I didn’t feel like the moment was too big for him. I was just hoping he got out of there with one or two runs and not four. They’re one big swing away. They hit one off the wall and they’re rolling and they didn’t get it. Felt fortunate there.”
