Kjerstad's walk-off completes sweep of Eastern Illinois

FAYETTEVILLE — Heston Kjerstad didn’t have the best weekend at the plate, but delivered when it mattered most.

His one-out RBI single in the ninth inning gave Arkansas a 3-2 win that completed a season-opening sweep over Eastern Illinois. The sophomore was 0 for 4 on the day and just 2 for 12 on the weekend coming into the at bat.

In fact, in a similar situation just two innings earlier, Kjerstad struck out to strand what would have been an insurance run at the time on third base.

“I flushed it and just went up there clear with an easy approach of just trying to hit something hard up the middle to score C.J.,” Kjerstad said. “I was excited to go up and get another at bat on the day and have a chance to get another run across the board to win it for us.”

Kjerstad lined a fastball into center to score freshman Curtis Washington Jr. - known as C.J. by his teammates - from second base for the game-winning run. Head coach Dave Van Horn described it as “more of a mature at bat” because he laid off the first pitch and then didn’t over-swing on the next one.

“It was about knee high and he didn’t try to hit it out of the park,” Van Horn said. “He just tried to hit a line drive through the middle and that’s exactly what he did. … That was good to see.”

It is the sixth season in a row that the Razorbacks have swept their opening series, but just like last year against Bucknell, Game 3 had a much different tone than the two prior games.

They cruised to eight- and nine-run wins in Saturday’s doubleheader before finding themselves in a battle Sunday afternoon. Van Horn was happy to see a close game with a trip to USC on the horizon.

“If we had another 15-2 game, I don’t know how it would have affected us going to USC this weekend,” Van Horn said. “To play a tight game, kind of let the lead slip away and then to come back and win it and kind of feel what we felt in the dugout, a little bit of pressure… I thought that was good for our team.”

Arkansas leaves for Los Angeles on Wednesday, with the three-game series beginning Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 9 p.m. CT and it will be streamed on the Pac-12 website.

Small Ball Hogs

With eight doubles and four home runs Saturday, Arkansas gave the impression that it had the same power in its lineup as last season. That might have been a little bit of fool’s gold because Van Horn has said all offseason that this year’s team would rely more on speed and small ball.

The 17th-year coach may have known what he was talking about. Casey Martin led off the game with a double, but from that point on, the Razorbacks managed only five more hits - all singles.

The small-ball approach was on full display in the seventh inning following a Jack Kenley leadoff walk. Van Horn called on Washington to pinch hit for Jordan McFarland because he’s an excellent bunter. He squared around on every pitch he saw, but drew a walk when Carson Haws couldn’t find the strike zone.

“I feel like I’m ready at all times,” Washington said. “Coach can call my name at any time, so I have to be ready at all times, so I was ready when the moment came and got the job done.”

The bunting duties then fell to Jacob Nesbit and, despite having two strikes, he laid down a perfect sacrifice to move the runners to second and third. With the infielders playing deep, Martin followed with a safety squeeze to give Arkansas a 2-0 lead.

That lead was gone when the lineup came back around to Washington in the ninth. Although he struck out in his lone at bat Saturday, Van Horn stuck with him in the tie ballgame.

“When he came around again and he ended up leading off there, yeah there was a little bit of a thought (to pinch hit for him),” Van Horn said. “But our thinking with Curtis, and we’ve watched him play a lot, he just competes and he’s not scared.”

After falling behind 0-2, Washington made it look like the right call by hitting a curveball into center. As he was two innings earlier, Nesbit was once again called upon to bunt.

This time, third baseman Christian Pena came way into the infield before the pitch, but the redshirt freshman still managed to get the sacrifice down and move Washington into scoring position, setting up Kjerstad’s walk-off hit.

Arkansas used aggressiveness on the base paths to score its first run of the game in the fourth inning, as well. McFarland hit a pop up to shallow center that the shortstop caught while falling down and Casey Opitz made a heads-up play by tagging up from third to make it a sacrifice fly.

Closing Time

The only reason Arkansas needed the ninth-inning heroics from Washington and Kjerstad was because it squandered a 2-0 lead in the eighth.

Patrick Wicklander and Zebulon Vermillion gave up back-to-back doubles to Trey Sweeney and Jimmy Govern, respectively, with the second making it a one-run game.

At that point, Van Horn brought in preseason All-American closer Matt Cronin for a five-out save opportunity. He was tasked with getting out Hunter Morris, who was 3 for 7 on Saturday, and got ahead 1-2 before giving up a game-tying single.

“He made him not look very good for two swings, but then he fouled a pitch off,” Van Horn said. “Then he left one out over the plate a little bit and (Morris) just did a great job, as a veteran hitter does.”

Cronin walked the next batter before forcing a groundout and strikeout to end the threat. In the ninth, he made easy work of the Panthers with three fly outs.

Van Horn said he was sitting between 91-95 miles per hour on his fastball and spun one breaking ball really well. At 28 pitches, though, he would not have pitched the 10th if the game went to extras.

Kostyshock’s Start

Junior right-hander Jacob Kostyshock made the start for Arkansas and looked good for the most part, scattering three hits and two walks across five innings while striking out three.

He ran into some trouble in the fourth with two walks sandwiched around a groundout, but then retired the final five batters he faced.

“You see him at times and he just looks un-hittable,” Van Horn said. “He had a couple of hitters I felt like he really had it going on, but the last couple of innings he was behind in the count a lot.”

Van Horn was pleased with his breaking ball and said that his command was the only concern at times.

“They didn’t hit him very hard,” Van Horn said. “He could have cut his pitch count down a lot if he just wouldn’t go so deep in counts, but I liked what I saw a lot, whether we start him or bring him out of the pen next week.”

Impressive Debut

With a really strong showing in the fall, Wicklander put himself in position to be a weekend starter. However, he got off to a slow start when the team returned from Christmas break and instead came out of the bullpen Sunday.

It was his collegiate debut and he didn’t appear nervous at all, needing only 10 pitches to strike out the first three batters he faced.

“My main goal was to just not let the atmosphere get to me too much,” Wicklander said. “I had the mindset of going out there and keeping my composure, throw strikes (and) get ahead.”

He worked around a one-out single in his second inning of work and then gave up a double before being relieved. In 2 1/3 innings, he threw 31 pitches and Van Horn said he threw “extremely well.”

“His velocity was as good as I’ve seen it, he threw a couple of nice breaking balls, a couple of good change-ups,” Van Horn said. “I liked the way he spotted his fastball away, but then he’d get them leaning out over the plate and he could bust those right-handers in.”

It may not happen against USC, but Van Horn said Wicklander would start at some point this season, either in a midweek or weekend game.

Martin’s Mistake

Arkansas would have jumped on Eastern Illinois early had it not been for a base-running mistake by Martin in the first inning. He hit a leadoff double to the left field wall, but was thrown out by a mile trying to stretch it into a triple.

“Marty thought the ball was being launched, thrown high to second,” Van Horn said. “I guess he thought it was going over his head when he threw the ball. Just too aggressive there. He’d already done what he needed to do, especially leading off a game.”

It proved costly when Kjerstad followed him with a deep fly out to center that would have moved him to third and then Trevor Ezell singled. Instead of it being a 1-0 lead, it was scoreless until the fourth.

Other Tidbits

~With frigid temperatures still in Northwest Arkansas, a lot of fans chose to stay home. The paid attendance was 7,382, with only 2,332 tickets scanned.

~Because the USC series starts on Thursday and the Razorbacks played a doubleheader Saturday, Isaiah Campbell will not start Game 1. Van Horn indicated that they may pitch by committee, with the starter only asked to go a few innings.

~Ezell went 5 for 10 this weekend to improve his career stats against Eastern Illinois to 21 for 44 with seven doubles, two home runs, 10 RBIs, 25 runs, 11 walks, four hit by pitches and only five strikeouts in 12 games. That gives him a .477/.610/.773 slash.

BOX SCORE

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