FAYETTEVILLE — The No. 5 Diamond Hogs wrapped up their 2023 slate of in-state games Tuesday at Baum-Walker Stadium, where they used a trio of seventh-inning runs to down the Central Arkansas Bears.
Although they won their fourth straight game, Tuesday was the first time in 33 games the Razorbacks failed to hit a home run.
The Bears opened the scoring in the second without recording a hit, taking advantage of the two free bases they received. With one away, Arkansas starter Cody Adcock plunked batters with consecutive pitches to create trouble.
Designated hitter Mason King, who wore the first pitch, intensified it with a steal of third base. Trying to catch the other runner napping, catcher Hudson Polk made a wild throw to first, allowing King to score the first run.
"I missed twice, big, arm-side and hit two guys," Adcock said. "One of them ended up scoring. Honestly, that's not acceptable for me. I thought I did alright, but I can't allow that to happen because if that happens on a weekend, we might lose that game."
The Central Arkansas lead was gone almost as soon as it appeared, as the Hogs tagged starter Dillan Janak for five singles in the bottom of the second. Shortstop Harold Coll’s one-out hit with two aboard tied it, and the fifth belonged to center fielder Tavian Josenberger, a two-run knock to make it 3-1 and chase the Bear lefty after four outs.
Armed with the lead, Adcock settled in to work a pair of scoreless frames to end his outing. The only hit he surrendered was a one-out double in the third, and he retired the next five batters to get through four innings on 51 pitches.
"I think that was a big start for me," Adcock said. "I think a lot of people might look past that game, but to me, it was like, 'These guys are coming in here to play us, so I'm going to bring the smoke to them.' They battled me the first couple innings, but I seemed to find a groove, and I'm confident."
The Bears appeared to be back within a run in the fifth when Sturgeon singled to center with two outs and a man on second. Shortstop Reid Bowman slid feet first into home, but replay confirmed the out call on the field, and left-hander Parker Coil walked back to the dugout with a zero to his name.
Coil notched another scoreless inning on 11 pitches in the sixth, settling into a duel with Central Arkansas reliever Cade Fenton. The right-hander stranded a runner he inherited with one out in the third and strung together three full shutout innings after that.
"Give him credit, man," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. "He pitched great. We hit a couple balls hard off of him and didn’t get hits. Had a couple balls that weren’t hit very good and we got hits, but he held us down."
The game’s first and only home run belonged to Bear catcher Noah Argenta, a two-run shot to level the score at three apiece with nobody out in the seventh. That marked the end of Coil’s outing, as Van Horn turned to righty Christian Foutch, who stranded a pair of runners in scoring position in the ninth inning Sunday against Tennessee.
It took the center fielder losing the ball in the lights with one out in the bottom of the seventh for the Hogs to record their first extra-base hit of the evening. As Sturgeon looked for the ball palms up, right fielder Kendall Diggs checked into second base, creating an RBI opportunity for the lower half of the order.
It was pinch hitter Brady Slavens who took advantage with two away, beating out an infield single just to the right of second base. Diggs’ opportunistic baserunning allowed him to take the final 90 feet and score the go-ahead run.
"I was just locked in on (third base) Coach (Nate) Thompson, watching what he was doing," Diggs said. "He never stopped waving me home. I kept going, trusted him, and it ended up working out."
A couple free passes and a wild pitch later, the Arkansas lead was 6-3.
Foutch turned in his second shutout inning in the eighth before giving way to Austin Ledbetter in the ninth. The right-hander picked up his first save of the season, stranding two more Bears with the tying run at the plate.
"Today was kind of a trap game a little bit with us heading out to Georgia tomorrow," Van Horn said. "It’s not like we have another day. We knew UCA would give us a really good shot today. I think they played a doubleheader on Saturday, so they got to rest a little on Sunday. I don’t know how their travel was, but they fought us hard. They did a good job."
The Razorbacks have a four-game road trip ahead of them, beginning with Thursday in Athens, Georgia, where they will take on the Bulldogs at 6 p.m. CT. The series opener will air live on the SEC Network and stream in the ESPN app.
