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Early defensive miscues were too much for Arkansas to overcome in its first game in Hoover, Ala.
Two errors and another mistake in the first four innings directly or indirectly led to all of Alabama’s runs in its 4-3 win over the Razorbacks at the 2022 SEC Tournament on Wednesday.
It was Arkansas’ third loss to the Crimson Tide in the span of a week and its seventh loss in its last 11 games, putting its hopes of hosting a regional in the upcoming NCAA Tournament on life support.
“We didn't play very good defense at the beginning of the game and they took advantage,” Hobbs said. “You've got to give a heck of a lot to credit to Coach Bohannon and those guys over there with Alabama. Thought they did a really good job. They played clean baseball, their pitchers threw strikes and they took advantage of our mistakes early to get out to a pretty decent lead.”
With the bases loaded and one out in the second inning, Tommy Seidl hit a ground ball to shortstop Jalen Battles, who threw to Robert Moore covering second to start a potential 6-4-3 double play.
The Razorbacks got the force at second, but Moore’s relay to first was low and first baseman Peyton Stovall couldn’t quite pick it, giving Seidl an RBI fielder’s choice. The ball bounced a few feet away from Stovall and Zane Denton took off and slid home safely just ahead of a throw and tag, scoring from second.
Instead of Arkansas getting out of the inning with another tough Battles-Moore double play, the aggressive base running gave the Crimson Tide a 2-0 lead, with the second run coming on what was ruled an error on Moore — just his second of the season.
There was no official error in the third inning, but Arkansas still played a part in Alabama pushing its lead to 3-0.
When Andrew Pinckney struck out on a pitch in the dirt, catcher Michael Turner attempted to tag him to complete the out, but wasn’t able to tough him before he started running down the first base line. Instead of throwing to first to get the second out of the inning, Turner fired the ball to third and got Caden Rose — who reached on a leadoff walk and advanced on a wild pitch — into a rundown between second and third.
It appeared as though the Razorbacks had him dead to rights, but pitcher Will McEntire’s attempted tag didn’t touch him until his hand got into the third base bag. That set up Drew Williamson’s sacrifice fly on a pop up caught by third baseman Cayden Wallace in foul territory.
The Crimson Tide loaded the bases again in the fourth inning and would have stranded the loaded had it not been for the second error of the game. Seidl got caught a little too far off third and Turner threw behind him in an effort to pick him off. However, his throw was wild and went into left field, allowing Seidl to score easily.
For much of the season, Arkansas was considered one of the best defensive teams in the country. In fact, heading into the Auburn series earlier this month, the Razorbacks were second nationally with a .985 fielding percentage.
Since then, though, they’ve committed 12 errors and had a .966 fielding percentage over the 10-game span. That has dropped their overall fielding percentage to .981.
“I think it's just one of those things that you're going to go through ups and downs either on the mound, at the plate or defensively throughout the season,” Hobbs said. “It's unfortunate that it's happening right now. I don't think that's something that will continue with our team. I do think the defense is just too good for that to happen.”
Here are several other key takeaways from Arkansas’ loss to Alabama on Wednesday…
Relying on the Long Ball
Finding themselves in yet another early deficit, the Razorbacks managed to chip away using the key to their offense all year: the home run.
Battles got Arkansas on the board with a one-out solo shot off Jacob McNairy in the third inning and then Chris Lanzilli demolished a 1-1 pitch from Jake Leger for a monstrous two-run blast with no outs in the sixth.
The home runs were two of Arkansas’ fives hits, with the latter one pulling it within 4-3. It managed to get the tying or go-ahead runs on base twice over the final three innings, but both times were with two outs and the next batter struck out.
The Razorbacks now have 83 home runs this season, which is tied for sixth on the UA single-season list, but they have seemed to be rather reliant on the long ball in recent weeks.
