Playing for grandfather, Moore stays red-hot for Arkansas
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Already someone who plays with a lot of emotion, Robert Moore didn’t need any extra motivation in Thursday’s series-opener at South Carolina.
The raucous crowd inside Founders Park provided it anyways, with chants of “Oompa Loompa” raining down as the 5-foot-9 sophomore crushed a tie-breaking, two-run home run in the seventh inning of No. 1 Arkansas’ 6-1 win over the No. 10 Gamecocks.
It was the second long ball of the day for Moore, who admired each of his moonshots after a quick bat flip. He didn’t acknowledge the hecklers after the game, but did reveal a more personal reason for playing with more emotion during his postgame interview with the media.
“I was more fired up tonight just because my grandparents live here,” Moore said. “My grandfather is actually in the hospital right now. I knew he was watching the game and I really wanted to play well and make him smile or something, so yeah, I had to have a little bit of an edge tonight."
There was certainly plenty for his grandfather to smile about Thursday night and he didn’t have to wait long.
After seeing how South Carolina ace Thomas Farr attacked Zack Gregory, Matt Goodheart and Brady Slavens and knowing the scouting report on the tough right-hander, Moore - hitting from the left side - knew a fastball was coming on the first pitch and made the most of it.
“The first one, he just jumped him,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “He got him a fastball and cheated out there and got 95 and hit it out of the park.”
The reason Moore was able to get a look at Farr before coming to the plate was because Van Horn moved him out of his usual leadoff spot, where he’d hit in 29 of Arkansas’ first 36 games.
Although the star sophomore has played a few games at the bottom of the order, Moore was inserted into the middle of the lineup for the first time this season.
“I put him in the 6-hole because I wanted him to hit behind (Christian) Franklin,” Van Horn said. “I just felt like it was time to put him in the middle to let him drive in runs and he definitely came through for us tonight.”
Moore made Van Horn look like a genius in the seventh inning.
With the score tied at 1-1, Franklin reached on a leadoff single the other way to bring up Moore. After fouling off a pitch and taking a strike to fall behind 0-2, the preseason All-SEC second baseman took advantage of a mistake by Farr, whose fastball got too much of the plate.
“Our approach is take the fastballs the other way and the breaking balls and changeups to center field, but he threw me an inside fastball and my hands just kind of reacted to it,” Moore said. “That was probably the hardest ball I’ve hit all year.”
The two home runs were Moore’s only hits, as he finished 2 for 4, but he could have easily had a third and he also walked once.
In between the two long balls, he hit a grounder that looked like it’d get through the right side for a single, but South Carolina second baseman Braylen Wimmer made a fantastic sliding stop on the outfield grass and threw him out at first.
Even with that robbery, Moore increased his season batting average to exactly .300. It’s the first time he’s hit that mark since falling below it during a slump at the start of SEC play.
Starting in the final game of the Louisiana Tech series, Moore had a stretch of seven games in which he went just 2 for 27. After hitting .375 through the first 10 games of the season, his batting average dipped all the way down to .244 after Arkansas’ first game at Mississippi State.
“The first week or so, I might have tried to do a little too much,” Moore said. “I think it started out, I was hitting balls right at people and then I saw the batting average dip and I was trying to get myself out of it, started rolling over and the next thing you know strikeouts come.”
Against the Bulldogs, Van Horn moved Moore to the bottom of the order and he responded with two hits in Game 2 and a big RBI triple in Game 3.
When he moved him back up the lineup, Van Horn told Moore to be more patient at the plate and even had him take pitches in his first - and sometimes second - at bats of the game. That seemed to help him relax.
“He’s always been confident, but he’s never really failed before, probably throughout summer ball and travel ball, all that,” Van Horn said. “He gets here, he played 16 games last year and he really didn’t fail. He finally failed and it got to him a little bit, but he got out of it and now he’s swinging the bat extremely well.”
Since then, Moore has gone hitless just three times in 16 games. He has seven multi-hit games, hit for the cycle against Central Arkansas and is slashing .371/.500/.774 with 20 RBIs during that span.
“Your timing comes and goes as a hitter, and right now my timing’s going pretty good,” Moore said. “So I’m just trying to ride it out.”
The Razorbacks will finish their series at South Carolina with a doubleheader Friday. The games - both of which will be a full nine innings - are scheduled for 1 and 6 p.m. CT and will be streamed on SEC Network-Plus.