Red evens series with big 6th inning, solid pitching

FAYETTEVILLE — Aside from one inning, Arkansas got a pitcher’s duel in Game 2 of its Fall World Series.

That lone inning was a big one, though, as the Red team sent 13 batters to the plate and scored 11 runs on eight hits in the sixth inning to carry them to an 11-0 win over the Black team at Baum-Walker Stadium on Sunday.

It was a dramatic turnaround from the game just two days earlier, when pitchers on both squads struggled to throw strikes in a 15-8 win by the Black. The seven-game intrasquad series is now tied 1-1.

Matt Goodheart - who didn’t play in Friday’s scrimmage - broke the scoreless tie by leading off the top of the sixth with a home run that just got over a leaping Christian Franklin in center.

That opened the floodgates, as the Red team’s first six batters ended up reaching safely.

Following the first out of the inning, freshman Jackson Cobb pushed the lead to 6-0 with a two-run double off the bottom of the wall in left-center.

A towering three-run home run by Brady Slavens - who had an RBI single earlier in the inning - that hit near the top of the Razorbacks’ new facility being built beyond the right field fence capped the scoring.

Five pitchers combined for the seven-inning shutout by the Red, highlighted by starter Kole Ramage’s 3 1/3 scoreless innings. He was followed by Evan Gray (1 1/3 IP), Zack Morris (1/3 IP), Matthew Magre (1 2/3 IP) and Liam Henry (1/3 IP).

Starting for the Black team, Caleb Bolden also had a solid outing with four scoreless innings of work.

Game 2 MVP

Several players made a case for this title Sunday, but Goodheart had the best day.

As the Red team’s designated hitter, the corona-junior went 3 for 4 with the aforementioned tie-breaking home run, two RBIs and two runs.

Goodheart hit his homer in a 2-1 count off Nathan Rintz, who had just thrown a scoreless fifth inning in which he worked around a leadoff walk by retiring the top two batters in Red’s lineup - Robert Moore and Cullen Smith.