FAYETTEVILLE — In a series that’s featured Isaiah Campbell, Garrett Stallings and Garrett Crochet, it was Arkansas’ freshman who turned in the best outing of the weekend so far.
Patrick Wicklander threw 5 2/3 innings to earn the victory in the Razorbacks’ 15-3 win over No. 20 Tennessee on Saturday. None of the other starting pitchers, despite their impressive ERAs, made it through the fifth inning.
For the second straight weekend, the left-hander from California got Arkansas off to a good start in a series-clinching Game 2 against a ranked SEC opponent by allowed only two earned runs.
The Volunteers bunted for a hit to break up his no-hitter with one out in the fifth and managed just four total hits and two walks against him. Wicklander (4-1, 4.14 ERA) also struck out seven in the longest outing of his young career.
“He just pitched great,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “He had a good fastball and a really good breaking ball, mixed in some changeups. He kept them off balance a little bit.”
He actually retired the first eight Tennessee batters in the game before issuing a two-out walk to Jay Charleston. A failed pickoff attempt moved him to second, but he was stranded there when Wicklander struck out leadoff man Pete Derkay to end the inning.
In the bottom half of the third, Arkansas’ offense exploded with two home runs - a solo shot by Jordan McFarland and a three-run bomb by Casey Martin - to give it a 4-0 lead. Although Van Horn said that probably relaxed Wicklander some, it set up a big fourth inning.
Sure enough, he didn’t disappoint, needing only 15 pitches to retire the Volunteers in order.
“You always worry when your team puts together like that,” Van Horn said. “A young pitcher on the mound, he’s got to get you through that inning and he did. He kept the momentum in our dugout and then we came back out and scored four more in the bottom of the inning.”
Wicklander was even better in the fifth, throwing just nine pitches in the inning, despite giving up the aforementioned bunt single by Jake Rucker.
An out away from getting through the sixth unscathed, he finally gave up an RBI double to Alerick Soularie - Tennessee’s best hitter - and an RBI single to Evan Russell. When he walked the following batter, Van Horn pulled him and Wicklander received a standing ovation from the large Baum-Walker Stadium crowd.
“He had command and that is kind of the deal,” Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said. “If he does, he’s special. … You have got to command it and he did it right out of the get-go. From that point on, he kind of rolled and there are not a lot of places to hit it against this team.”
One reason Wicklander was able to go deeper into a game than he had all season is he had a season-high seven days of rest.
Earlier in the season, he would start a midweek game and then come out of the bullpen on the weekend, making him one of the most-used pitchers on the staff. However, now he has settled into his role as a weekend starter
“We talked about that this week…that this is going to be the longest break he’s had since the season started and let’s see how this goes,” Van Horn said. “I thought he had really good velocity and he had good stuff.”
The Razorbacks hope to get another solid outing by a freshman as they go for the sweep at 4 p.m. Sunday with right-hander Connor Noland (2-2, 4.60 ERA) on the mound. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
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