The No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks (33-6, 12-4 SEC) were defeated by the Texas A&M Aggies (22-15, 7-9 SEC), 7-4, Thursday evening at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville.
Ace left-hander Zach Root was a little shaky to start against the Aggies, as he was tagged with four runs in the first two innings. In the end, he allowed seven hits and five earned runs through 4.0 innings pitched. He also notched six strikeouts and three walks.
Arkansas' offense matched Texas A&M's early run production, as it scored two in the first and two in the third, but was shut down through the middle innings of the game. Charles Davalan (two hits) and Wehiwa Aloy (two hits, two-run home run) were excellent at the plate, but the team only managed nine hits in 35 at-bats.
Right-hander Dylan Carter was big-time in relief for the Razorbacks, with four innings of one-hit baseball, zero runs allowed and four strikeouts. Flamethrower righty Christian Foutch entered in the ninth and gave up a solo bast for a huge Aggie insurance run, but collected two strike outs to close his only frame.
Root started his day with a strikeout looking on the Aggies' leadoff hitter, but his perfect game ended there, as he allowed a walk and two straight singles to give Texas A&M a 1-0 lead.
Elite Texas A&M strike-thrower Ryan Prager was met with back-to-back singles from Charles Davalan and Wehiwa Aloy in the bottom of the first. A Logan Maxwell fielder's choice gave the Hogs runners on the corners with one out, and after seeing nine pitches, Kuhio Aloy smashed a double down the left-field line on pitch No. 10 to tie things up. Cam Kozeal handed the Hogs a 2-1 lead with an RBI groundout.
Texas A&M led off the second with a single off Root, who bounced back with his third strikeout of the day. However, the southpaw then gave up a single and plunked an Aggie batter to load the bases up. After an RBI groundout tied the game, Root gave up a double to give the Aggies a 4-2 lead. Root got out of the frame with an amazing defensive play from Wehiwa Aloy.
Both pitchers quieted things down in the bottom of the second and top of the third, respectively, with only two batters reaching base combined between the frames.
The 1-2 punch of Davalan and Wehiwa Aloy made itself known to begin the bottom of the third. Following a leadoff double by Davalan, Wehiwa sent a bomb to centerfield to tie the game, 4-4.
Root only needed eight pitches to get through the top of the fourth, his first 1-2-3 frame of the day. Prager also needed under 10 pitches to finish a quick fourth inning.
Thanks to a walk, two wild pitches and another walk, Texas A&M began the fifth with runners on the corners and no outs. The Aggies took a 5-4 lead on a swinging bunt fielded by Brent Iredale, who overthrew first base and allowed two runners to advance into scoring position. Still with no outs, Arkansas turned to righty Dylan Carter from the bullpen to settle things down.
After an RBI fielder's choice groundout, Carter got the final two outs without allowing a run. The Aggies now led 6-4.
Justin Thomas Jr. led the bottom of the fifth off with a first-pitch single to center field, which prompted an Aggie pitching change to righty Weston Moss. Davalan smoked one off Moss on the first pitch, but it was a lineout to left center. Wehiwa Aloy struck out and Maxwell grounded out to end the inning.
Both Carter and Moss retired the side in the sixth inning. Carter did the same in the top of the seventh, but things got interesting for Moss in his next frame. After two straight outs, he gave up a single to Thomas and a four-pitch walk to Davalan. But, he bounced back with a strikeout against Wehiwa Aloy.
After another quick frame in the top of the eighth for Carter, Arkansas' offense went down with a whimper to close the inning.
Right-hander Christian Foutch came out of the bullpen for Arkansas in the top of the ninth, and he immediately allowed a solo homerun to give the Aggies a big insurance run.
Down three runs in the bottom of the ninth, Ryder Helfrick led things off with a 109-MPH single. Iredale followed up with a strikeout swinging in a full-count to bring up Gabe Fraser, who reached first on a fielder's choice. With two outs, Kendall Diggs pinch-hit for Thomas. Diggs singled to center to give Arkansas two men on base, but Davalan ended the game with a groundout.
Up next, Arkansas and Texas A&M will play a double-header Friday at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. First pitch for Game 1 of the double-header is set for 2 p.m. CT and it will stream on SEC Network+.
