The No. 1 Arkansas Razorbacks (19-3, 5-1 SEC) suffered their first conference loss in an 8-6 defeat at the No. 23 Auburn Tigers (14-8, 0-5 SEC) in front of a record crowd of 5,087 fans Saturday at Plainsman Park in Auburn, Alabama.
With head coach Dave Van Horn back in the dugout following the birth of triplet grandchildren Friday, the Diamond Hogs fell just short of the Tigers despite a valiant effort.
Arkansas plated four runs in the Tigers in the top of the fourth via a three-run homer hit 400 feet to left-center by Jared Sprague-Lott and an RBI double from right fielder Kendall Diggs that chased Auburn starting pitcher Joseph Gonzalez.
Auburn didn't let that crooked number put the game out of reach, as the Tigers plated six runs off three Arkansas pitchers in the bottom of the sixth after the Hogs decided to end starter Mason Molina's day after 74 pitches through five innings of one-run ball. Two more runs sprinkled across a pair of one-run innings were enough to propel Auburn past the Hogs.
"Yeah, tough loss," Van Horn said postgame. "We let a lead slip away. It’s hard to recover when you give up six in one inning. We had plenty of chances to score today. We left a lot of runners on. We are swinging the bats better in my opinion. We did swing at too many pitches out of the zone. We’ve got to clean that up a little bit before this week."
The Tigers scored half of their runs Saturday with two outs, and they had five hits with runners on base. On the other hand, the Razorbacks left 11 runners on base despite having seven hits with runners on.
"Yeah, just too many little missed opportunities to get one here, maybe two there," Van Horn said. "Runners at first and second or second and third, one out, things like that. We just didn’t drive people in all the time."
Gonzalez, a native of Puerto Rico, worked around a two-out double from Wehiwa Aloy and picked up two strikeouts in a scoreless top of the first.
Molina went 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the first for the Razorbacks, who then had two runners on with one out in the top of the second via a pair of hit batters by Gonzalez. The Auburn righty calmed down and retired two in a row to strand the runners.
The bottom of the second began with a four-pitch walk from Molina to lead things off, but he bounced right back with a three-pitch strikeout and a pair of contact outs to end the frame after throwing just 10 pitches.
Gonzalez one-upped Molina by going three up, three down on just seven pitches in the top of the third. Despite two batters reaching with two outs in the bottom half, Molina still got out of the inning on just 11 pitches to keep the game scoreless after three innings.
Arkansas finally got to the Tigers' starter in the form of a three-run homer Sprague-Lott that hit off the scoreboard in left-center. Later in the frame, Diggs hit an RBI double — his first hit of the weekend — to make it a 4-0 lead and chase Gonzalez. Auburn turned to lefty Carson Meyers in relief, and he recorded the third out with no more damage.
The Tigers loaded the bases with one out in the bottom half of the fourth thanks to three free passes from Molina — one hit by pitch and two walks. Molina made up for his mistakes by retiring two in a row to strand the three runners.
Arkansas couldn't capitalize on a pair of walks from Meyers in the top of the fifth, as the Hogs left their sixth and seventh runners on base to that point in the game.
Molina led the fifth off with a walk to Auburn's Cooper Weiss and was nearly in big trouble when Ike Irish hit a double to center, but Ty Wilmsmeyer gunned Weiss down at third on a wild play from the centerfielder. The Tigers did plate a run via an RBI single from Cooper McMurray, but that was all in the frame to make it a 4-1 Arkansas lead after five innings.
"He’s got an accurate arm," Van Horn said of Wilmsmeyer. "He showed that on that throw to third. He threw it over the cutoff man, but he was throwing to third. Made a perfect throw and obviously we got the out there. Who knows what would happen if we didn’t."
The Razorbacks got the run back via an RBI triple from Diggs in the top of the sixth that chased Meyers and brought right-hander Parker Carlson on in relief with one out. Carlson retired two in a row to strand Diggs.
With Molina at just 74 pitches, Van Horn elected to turn to sophomore right-hander Cooper Dossett for the second time in as many days.
"I think it was a good learning experience, but the fourth and fifth, there’s just way too many pitches thrown," Van Horn said of Molina's outing. "Too many wasted pitches not really close. Auburn didn’t have to work a couple of times to get base runners on. It was a four-pitch walk. Five-pitch walk. Stuff like that.
"If he can clean that up, we can get seven out of him, because they don’t hit him. I only think he gave up a couple hits, but he gave up four walks. They started hitting him hard there in the last inning because he was behind in the count. We’ve got to get better with that, but he’s a really good pitcher. Really hard to hit."
Auburn's Mason Maners took Dossett deep to right field — the first hit allowed all year by Dossett — to lead things off and make it three-run deficit for the Tigers.
Dossett then gave up a single and was relieved by freshman Gabe Gaeckle, who faced just three batters and was pulled after giving up an RBI walk to make it a 5-3 game. Arkansas then turned to freshman lefty Colin Fisher with bases loaded and no outs.
The Tigers scored their fourth run via an RBI fielder's choice to start Fisher's outing, and following a strikeout, Fisher gave up a three-run opposite field homer to McMurray that gave the Tigers a 7-5 lead to cap off a six-run bottom of the sixth inning.
"I thought Fisher came in, tough situation," Van Horn said. "He just gave up a fly ball that turned into a three-run homer. Kind of a tough-luck pitcher on that swing. But he gave us a chance to get back in it."
Arkansas gained a run back via an RBI double from Will Edmunson in the top of the seventh to cut the Auburn lead to one run entering the bottom half. Fisher allowed back-to-back bunt singles, but picked up three outs over the next two at bats with a fly out to center and a 4-6-3 double-play.
Right-hander Will Cannon came on in relief for the Tigers to start the top of the eighth inning. The Auburn closer worked around a two-out walk to keep the deficit at 7-6 for the Razorbacks with three more outs to work with.
The Tigers picked up an insurance run via a one-out opposite field solo homer from catcher Ike Irish to make the lead two runs. Fisher recorded one more out and he was then relieved by left-hander Stone Hewlett, who picked up an inning-ending strikeout.
Cannon returned to the mound in the top of the ninth pumping heat with the fastball at 94-96 miles per hour. The Auburn righty went 1-2-3 to earn the save and hand the Hogs their first SEC loss of the year.
"Definitely feel good about having five wins out of six in this league," Van Horn said. "I think that I shouldn’t be coaching if I wasn’t disappointed that we got beat today. I am, but I’m still not disappointed with the team or the effort. I think they’ve been playing hard. We’ve still got a long way to go."
Up next, the Razorbacks will host in-state foe Little Rock on Tuesday evening at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. The game is set for a 6:30 p.m. CT first pitch and the game will be streamed live on SEC Network+.
