Kjerstad homers twice, other tidbits from Monday's scrimmage

FAYETTEVILLE — Mother Nature blessed Arkansas with a gorgeous day for its third day of preseason practice Monday afternoon.

Originally scheduled to be the NCAA-mandated off day for the week, head coach Dave Van Horn instead tweaked the Razorbacks’ plans and gave the team Friday off because of bad weather.

The move couldn’t have been better, as the Black team edged the Red team 5-4 in a seven-inning intrasquad scrimmage at Baum-Walker Stadium on a sunshine-filled day with temperatures getting into the 60s.

Heston Kjerstad hit two of five home runs in the scrimmage, with both of them being to the opposite field. His first appeared it might go foul, but it ended up going directly over the the left field foul pole. The second landed in the Hog Pen.

Here are a few other tidbits and observations from the scrimmage, followed by an unofficial box score…

~Perhaps the most notable performance outside of Kjerstad belonged to freshman Robert Moore, the highly touted prospect who should still be in high school but opted to skip his senior season to join the Razorbacks early. In his senior at bat of the day, he ripped a line drive into the right field corner for what should have been a stand-up double. Instead, Moore ignored the stop sign from the third base coach and slid in ahead of the throw to stretch it into a triple. His next time up, he hit a leadoff, opposite-field home run that just cleared the 375-foot sign in left-center - after which his teammates gave him the silent treatment in the dugout. In his final at bat, Moore grounded out to first, but notched an RBI.

~Moore's only blemish on the day was an error in the seventh inning, but it was honestly a play that could have been given a hit. He made a really nice play to his left just to get the ball, but his throw took the first baseman off the bag. An accurate throw would have gotten the runner, which is why HawgBeat gave him an error.