ARLINGTON, Texas — Despite setting a new program record with 25 team strikeouts, the No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks (4-2) fell just short of the Oklahoma State Cowboys (4-2) with a 2-1 loss in 14 innings at Globe Life Field on Saturday.
In front of 16,271 (mostly Hog) fans, the Razorbacks went 2-24 at the plate with runners on base and they were 1-14 with runners in scoring position. Just one day after throwing a program-best 23 strikeouts against No. 7 Oregon State, the Arkansas pitchers were even better against the Cowboys.
"Probably other team’s pitching is pretty good, and we’ve got to make some adjustments that we didn’t make tonight, but I don’t want to get into it," Van Horn said about his team's hitting after the game.
Junior right-hander Brady Tygart tossed a gem in the start for Arkansas. He threw six scoreless innings and give up just three hits while walking two and striking out six batters. Tygart threw 78 total pitches and 53 for strikes, and he never faced more than four batters in a single inning.
After that, five Razorback relievers combined to throw 8.1 innings of two-run ball while striking out 19 combined batters. Unfortunately, it just wasn't enough to overcome the Hogs' struggles at the plate.
"Just a great job by the pitching staff," Van Horn said. "You know, put some freshmen out in some really, really tough situations, and they answered the bell. Gained a lot of really good experience tonight. It was a tough loss, but give their pitching staff credit.
"They just kept getting us to roll over balls. We hit a lot of ground balls to the pull side. We had a lot of shots for a hit to grab the lead, but we never got it. Just a super job by our pitching staff."
Both starting pitchers ran into a pair of baserunners in the first inning, but each of them responded well for their respective teams. Holiday retired two in a row for the Cowboys, while Tygart benefitted from an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
Tygart and Holiday faced four batters each in the second inning, as both pitchers managed to work around a batter reaching with two outs. The only glaring difference after two innings was that Tygart had given up a pair of hits, while Holiday hadn't allowed any.
Again, the third inning was a near mirror image for the two pitchers. Holiday had to work around Arkansas catcher Hudson White reaching via an error with one out, and he did so by retiring the next two batters in a row. In the bottom half, Tygart gave up a one-out single and then sat down the next two — one of which came via a web gem from Jared Sprague-Lott at third — to strand the runner.
While Holiday worked a perfect top of the fourth, Tygart was forced to stay out for a fourth batter after a questionable ball four call in a full count. The Razorback righty responded by picking up his fourth strikeout of the game to end the inning.
Arkansas' lineup finally gave Tygart run support in the top of the fifth via an RBI single from Kendall Diggs that drove in Sprague-Lott, who led the frame off with a double to left-center that broke up Holiday's no-hitter. The Razorbacks' starter out of Hernando, Mississippi, backed that up with his first perfect frame in the bottom half of the fifth.
Holiday worked a 1-2-3 top of the sixth, and Tygart nearly did the same, but he plunked Cowboys third baseman Tyler Wulfert with a two-out pitch. After putting two strikes on the next batter — Colin Brueggemann — Tygart had to wait for Cowboys head coach Josh Holliday to finish arguing with the umpires before he threw strike three in right after for an inning-ending, three-pitch strikeout.
"He had more in there," Van Horn said of Tygart. "We could have sent him back for another inning. We just felt like mid-70s was a good number for him in the second outing. We had guys that didn’t pitch, and most guys did a nice job."
Junior right-hander Aaron Weber relieved Holiday to start the seventh and he gave up a leadoff single to Arkansas second baseman Peyton Holt. After a groundout, Oklahoma State turned to right-hander Gabe Davis, who walked Ty Wilmsmeyer to start but retired the next two Hogs to strand two runners.
Sixth-year senior Koty Frank relieved Tygart to start the bottom of the seventh and he struck out the side to make it 13 batters retired in a row to start the season for him. The Hogs blew a leadoff single in the top of the eighth, but Frank made up for it by starting the bottom half off with two more strikeouts.
After a four-pitch walk chased Frank, left-hander Stone Hewlett came on and earned the third out with a strikeout to Cowboys right fielder Carson Benge to end the eighth.
Arkansas was unable to capitalize on getting Wilmsmeyer to third base in the top of the ninth, and Van Horn turned to junior right-hander Jake Faherty to close things down for the second night in a row in the bottom of the ninth.
After walking two of the first three batters he faced, Faherty gave up a game-tying RBI double to Aidan Meola. After hitting the next batter to load the bases, Faherty was relieved by freshman Gabe Gaeckle.
The right-hander out of Aptos, California, struck out the two batters he faced in electric fashion to send the game to extras. Arkansas went down in order in the top of the 10th, and Gaeckle responded by going 1-2-3 with two more punchouts.
Arkansas couldn't capitalize on a two-out double in the top of the 11th, but Gaeckle added two more strikeout in another three up, three down frame in the bottom of the 11th.
Oklahoma State reliever Gabe Davis continued to dominate by working around a two-out baserunner and getting through 5 2/3 innings by facing just one more than the minimum in the top of the 12th.
Gaeckle issued a leadoff walk in the bottom of the 12th and was relieved by fellow freshman Colin Fisher. The left-hander retired three of the first four batters he faced and proceeded to retire five straight on looking strikeouts to get the game to the 14th innings, as the Hogs couldn't get anything going in the bottom of the 13th inning.
"We were thinking about using him, we were hoping for one inning and he’d still be able to start on Tuesday, but hey we could try to win tonight," Van Horn said of Fisher. "He was pitching good, so we just let him go."
Arkansas stranded a leadoff single in the top of the 14th and the Cowboys finally ended the game with an RBI bunt single to walk things off in the bottom half.
Up next, the Razorbacks will take on the Michigan Wolverines (2-4) at 1 p.m. CT at Globe Life Field on Sunday. The game will once again be streamed via FloSports and fans can purchase a subscription to watch live.
