FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas baseball team began its 2023 Fall World Series on Monday afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium and the Gray team and Cardinal squad walked off the field tied 9-9 in an intrasquad scrimmage that featured sloppy defense, yet impressive pitching performances.
Head coach Dave Van Horn, who is entering his 22nd season with Arkansas, said the game isn't over and the team will finish things up Tuesday.
"Well it's not over yet," Van Horn said. "Last year we had to walk off the field in Game 3 because we ran out of pitching, because we had already doubled up like three guys. Today was about as ugly as I've ever seen."
Despite him saying that, Arkansas Baseball released a statement saying the game will officially be ruled as a tie.
"Game one of the Fall World Series is officially ruled a tie," Arkansas Baseball said. "The Razorbacks will play a winner-take-all game on Tuesday, Oct. 17, to decide this year's Fall World Series champion. First pitch at noon."
Both teams posted three errors each, which resulted in 10 of the 18 runs scored being earned. There were 16 combined walks and 22 combined free passes in the contest.
"We had a windy day and we changed our practice play like three weeks ago, the beginning of it, and we did this," Van Horn said. "And we talked about the wind. It was a perfect day to do it. Even windier than this, but you would've never known it by watching today.
"And we've got a catcher playing second base. Welcome to fall baseball. We've got some guys that are a little banged up that aren't playing. It got a little ugly and it might get uglier. But tomorrow we're going to finish this game and we're going to play the second game right after that and I don't know how we're going to play Thursday, because we don't have any pitching left."
Van Horn probably would've been more upset at his team's faults had his daughter not told him midway through the scrimmage that she might be having triplets.
"Anything that happened after the fourth inning, I don't remember," Van Horn said. "Because my daughter and my son-in-law came down and told me that my daughter's not going to have one — I don't have any grandkids — and probably not going to have two. There may be more. This is all natural. So I'm kind of freaked out right now, I'll be honest with you."
Led by freshman right-hander Gabe Gaeckle on the mound, the Gray team posted four runs in the top of the second inning to take a big lead early. Gaeckle kept the Cardinal lineup at bay by throwing three innings and allowing one earned run on four hits while striking out four and walking two.
"He was lights out today," Tarleton State transfer Jack Wagner said. "He did pretty well. He had his heater working and then both of his spin pitches — that curveball and slider."
The Gray squad added a fifth run on an RBI sacrifice fly from Hudson Polk in the top of the third, but Cardinal responded with one run in the bottom of the third and a four-spot in the bottom of the fourth.
With veteran righty Will McEntire on the mound, Cardinal took advantage of a pair of fielding errors to tie the contest up at 5-5 after four innings.
Sophomore Cooper Dossett was on the bump for Cardinal in the top of the fifth and he saw a run cross when freshman Nolan Souza hit an infield fly to shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, who dropped the ball and then had a throwing error trying to get Kendall Diggs out at home. Diggs scored to put Gray up 6-5 and they still had runners on the corners with two outs.
Dossett then issued back-to-back walks to load the bases and then allow Gray's seventh run to cross.
Kansas transfer left-hander Stone Hewlett loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth to result in sophomore righty Christian Foutch coming on in relief. One run crossed on an RBI sacrifice fly from freshman catcher Ryder Helfrick and another crossed to tie it at 7-7 via a throwing error from Jayson Jones at third base.
Helfrick led the team with three RBIs on the day, and Van Horn said the freshman could end up being an everyday player.
"He's just a serious freshman," Van Horn. "He takes it serious and he has a chance to be an everyday player as a freshman for us."
A wild pitch from Foutch allowed freshman designated hitter Kade Smith to score and give Cardinal an 8-7 lead, which was its first of the day.
The Gray squad took the lead right back with sophomore righty Gage Wood on the mound for Cardinal in the top of the sixth. An RBI single from Diggs tied things up and a wild pitch from Wood allowed Parker Rowland to cross home and give Gray a one-run lead.
Tarleton State transfer Jack Wagner tied the game back up in the next half frame with a one-out home run that traveled 397 feet to left field.
Wood returned to the mound in the top of the seventh with a much meaner attitude and that resulted in him striking out the side — all on fastballs in the 92-93 mile per hour range.
"He's had a great fall," Van Horn said of Wood. "You can tell he's changed his body a little bit. He's thinned it up. He's in really good shape. He just lived in the mid-90s. Nothing but strikes. I don't know if he had a walk going into today."
After the Cardinal team went down in order in the bottom of the seventh, the game ended in a 9-9 tie.
