Noland dominant in start, other tidbits, box score from Friday's scrimmage

FAYETTEVILLE — Connor Noland looked the part of an SEC ace in his second outing of the preseason.

The sophomore right-hander and projected No. 1 starter battled through a tough start, but eventually settled in and threw four strong innings in the Red team’s 11-1 win over the Black team in Friday’s eight-inning intrasquad scrimmage at Baum-Walker Stadium.

After giving up a leadoff single to Braydon Webb on the first pitch of the afternoon, Noland got Christian Franklin to ground into a double play to erase the base runner. He followed that up with a walk to Heston Kjerstad.

It would have been a scoreless four innings for the Greenwood native, but Casey Opitz’s drive into center go over the head of Curtis Washington Jr. because of a poor angle.

Had Franklin - the expected starring center fielder - or former SEC All-Defensive Team member Dominic Fletcher been behind him, there’s a good chance they would have tracked it down for the final out.

Although Jacob Nesbit followed with a single into left, Opitz had to hold up at third. From that point on, Noland was dominant.

He got freshman Cason Tollett to hit a grounder back to him for the final out of the inning and then didn’t allow a hit over the next three innings - striking out five of his final 10 batters. Those strikeouts weren’t cheap, either, as two came against Webb, one came against Opitz and another came against Kjerstad, a preseason first-team All-American.

The only blemish during that stretch was an error by Bryce Matthews that allowed Nesbit to reach base.

Here are a few of HawgBeat’s other takeaways from the Razorbacks’ fourth preseason scrimmage…

~Patrick Wicklander, the other pitcher competing with Noland for the role of staff ace, was also solid Friday afternoon. The sophomore left-hander gave up just two hits and two walks in three innings. However, one of those walks led off the second inning and came around to score on an RBI single by Matthews.