Two Moore RBIs for freshman phenom as Hogs sweep Gonzaga

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FAYETTEVILLE — With the series already in hand, Arkansas completed a four-game sweep of Gonzaga on a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon.

Nine different players pounded out 14 total hits to carry the Razorbacks to a 9-5 win over the preseason favorite in the West Coast Conference.

“Today was more of that trap game for us,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “We could have walked away from this, ‘Well, we won the first three,’ but our guys showed up today. Rainy day, 3-0, they had a great attitude.

“They just came out and played and showed some real maturity today. We didn’t have to try to pep anybody up or say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to go get ‘em.’ We didn’t have to say anything. They just got after it.”

With the win, Arkansas is 7-0 for the first time since 2016, when it won the first eight games of the season.

The Razorbacks won’t have a midweek game once again, getting four days off before traveling to Houston to play in the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic at Minute Maid Park. They’ll face Big 12 foes Oklahoma, Texas and Baylor on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Moore RBIs

Whether you call him Minor, Teacup, Pipsqueak or The Kid, the 17-year-old freshman phenom is one thing for certain: a ballplayer.

Robert Moore, who said his teammates even put “I am 12” - a reference to the movie Benchwarmers - on the back of his shirt a few days ago, has heard all of the nicknames and now he’s earning the respect of fans and teammates alike.

“Him being 17 years old and accomplishing what he has here, it’s been awesome,” shortstop Casey Martin said. “You don’t see a lot of guys who are open to that kind of stuff because they are so young and immature, but he’s definitely maturing and taking in the level we play.”

Already with a solid case to be SEC Freshman of the Week, Moore went 2 for 2 with another two RBIs, two walks and a stolen base in Sunday’s win.

As he did in the first and third games of the series, he drove in the first run of the game. He actually had RBI singles in his first two at bats in the finale, giving him nine RBIs for the weekend. It was a dramatic turnaround from his 1-for-12 showing against Eastern Illinois.

“Last weekend, Robert was just trying to get hits,” Van Horn said. “He was trying to catch up with all the other guys and swung at pitches and didn’t take walks.

“This weekend, he saw a lot of pitches. He took a couple walks today and yesterday, fouled off some pitches, got some hits. You just saw what he’s all about as far as at the plate.”

Moore had two more plate appearances and drew walks both times. That includes a leadoff walk in the seventh, after which he pulled off a play you don’t see too often.

With two outs in the inning, he was still on first when Heston Kjerstad also walked. The Bulldogs, as they had all weekend, shifted to the right to defend against the left-handed slugger and when Moore got to second, he realized no one covering third, so he took off and stole it.

“I remember a play, I was watching the Royals a few years ago when the shift really became popular, a player took third base,” Moore said. “So I was just looking for it knowing that Goodheart was up next (and) they’d probably stay in the shift.”

The performance made him 8 for 12 with a double, home run, four runs, nine RBIs, four runs and two stolen bases against the Bulldogs. That works out to a .667/.750/1.000 slash for the weekend, raising his season batting average to .375 after coming into the series at .083.

More impressively, Moore went a perfect 7 for 7 with runners in scoring position.

“Good player, plays with a ton of energy and he is going to be outstanding,” Gonzaga head coach Mark Machtolf said. “We were really impressed with him. I think he plays beyond his years.

“We didn’t see him a ton right-hander, but he is going to be a good player. You wouldn’t guess that he is a freshman, much less supposed to be a senior in high school.”

Long Balls

It was somewhat of a quiet weekend for Arkansas’ bats in terms of home runs. After hitting seven in three games against Eastern Illinois, the Razorbacks hit just four in four games against Gonzaga.

Two of those long balls came in Game 4, starting with an opposite-field home run by Christian Franklin to lead off the fourth inning. It was a no-doubter, clearing the right field bullpen.

The second was also a leadoff home run in the very next inning, as Martin got ahold of a fastball up and in and sent it into the left field bullpen. It was not only the preseason All-American’s first homer of the season, but it was also his first RBI.

“It was good to see, honestly, considering I’ve kind of been up and down, kind of starting off a little sluggish,” Martin said. “Even though I had just one hit today, it was good to see. I had some good swings, just making good progress.”

Martin celebrated with his teammates in the dugout afterward, particularly Casey Opitz. He said the catcher had been on him a little bit the day before and then told him he was in his corner, pretending he was a boxer and squirting water in his mouth before dabbing his forehead with a towel.

It was Martin’s only hit in five at bats Sunday and he’s hitting just .208 - the worst among Arkansas’ starters - but he almost had a home run in his previous at bat, as well.

“He just missed one earlier in the game, just barely missed it and flew out to the warning track,” Van Horn said. “If he had hit it yesterday, it might have blown out of the park with the way the wind was blowing.”

Bolden on the Bump

Making his first start since April 17, 2018, against Missouri State, right-hander Caleb Bolden - who missed the entire 2019 season because of Tommy John surgery - looked really good his first couple of innings.

He retired the Bulldogs in order on just 10 pitches in an “outstanding” first inning, per Van Horn, and then worked around a one-out single by inducing a double play in a “really good” second inning that required 12 pitches.

Gonzaga started to figure him out in the third inning, though. Back-to-back singles and a sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third, but an unassisted double play by Martin ended the jam. Bolden also gave up back-to-back singles to start the fourth inning, making it five hits in eight at bats and leading to Van Horn pulling him.

“It almost looked like he started getting a little tired, a little fatigued,” Van Horn said. “Even though the pitch count wasn’t up, he really hasn’t done this and competed, had the adrenaline going. It’s been a while.”

None of those runners came around to score, so it was another outing of three scoreless innings for Bolden, as he also threw three scoreless out of the bullpen in the Saturday game against Eastern Illinois.

Van Horn said he has an opportunity to become the No. 3 starter this season behind sophomores Connor Noland and Patrick Wicklander.

Denton Delivers

The biggest moment of Sunday’s game came in the top of the fourth. Arkansas was clinging to a 1-0 lead and, for the second straight inning, Gonzaga’s first two batters reached on back-to-back singles.

That chased Bolden from the game and forced Van Horn to go to his bullpen, as he brought in right-hander Marshall Denton. With the heart of their lineup coming up, the Bulldogs had an excellent chance to take their first lead of the series.

“Just attack mode - fill up the zone and off speed pitches,” Denton said of his approach. “That’s what we’ve been going with all week and they weren’t hitting it well, so that’s what I went with.”

Sure enough, the redshirt junior from Beebe, Ark., did just that. He filled up the zone with off speed pitches and Gonzaga’s hitters never looked comfortable facing his side-arm throwing motion.

Ryan Sullivan looked at strike three and then Stephen Lund and Gabriel Hughes went down swinging to make it three up, three down for Denton.

“It was a huge momentum swing,” Machtolf said. “We did not put together big at-bats then and the inning before we hit the ball real hard and our guy got doubled off. In the (fourth) inning, their guy came in - the slider guy, the slinger guy - and we didn’t adjust to him at all.”

It was Denton’s second outing of the series, as he also threw an inning Friday, plus he got warmed up and ready to go twice in another game, so Van Horn didn’t really give it much thought about him staying in the game the next inning even though he threw just 14 pitches.

“He knows his role is to come in there and either give us a couple innings and keep it where it is or get out of a jam,” Van Horn said. “Get some right-handed hitters out, maybe get a ground ball. He came and struck out the side (on) 14, 15, 16 pitches, whatever he threw.”

Other Tidbits

~A light, steady rain fell throughout the game and it was cold, so not surprisingly, Arkansas had its smallest crowd of the season Sunday. The official attendance - or “tickets distributed” number - was 7,615, with a “tickets scanned” number of 1,582.

~After starting and catching every inning the previous three days, Opitz was given some rest and Van Horn started freshman Dominic Tamez for the first time. He went 2 for 2 with a couple of singles and a walk and was solid behind the plate. “I thought overall, he did a great job because when you don’t really notice the catcher, that’s a good thing,” Van Horn said. “You weren’t seeing balls go to the backstop or kicking way off.” Opitz came off the bench and caught the final four innings.

~Martin’s eighth-inning strikeout was the 151st of his career. That moves him into a tie with Matt Vinson (2013-14) and Ryan Fox (2001-03) for seventh in UA history. He is just 10 shy of tying Brett Eibner’s record for a three-year player.