FAYETTEVILLE — The highest of midweek highs in Tuesday’s win over UALR begat the lowest of lows for the Razorbacks on Wednesday at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Multiple errors, several stranded runners and a myriad of hits allowed were ingredients in the Trojans’ 11-4 victory over Arkansas to split the midweek series.
"Baseball, what a humbling game," Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. "You’ve got to show up, you’ve got to play defense and you’ve got to throw strikes. And yesterday, Little Rock didn’t do it and today we didn’t do it."
The home team jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning. Right fielder Jace Bohrofen launched a center-cut fastball 427 feet to right to open the scoring, and first baseman Brady Slavens tripled the margin with another obliteration of a middle-middle pitch.
The Trojans got all three runs back in the top of the third, tagging Razorback starter Ben Bybee for one before he could record an out. Slavens misplayed his second ball of the inning, but the only one scored an error, allowing the second run to cross, and left fielder Luke Pectol’s sacrifice fly leveled the score.
Razorback catcher Hudson Polk ended the threat with his third caught stealing of the season, completing Bybee’s outing after three innings and 63 pitches.
"Still pitching like a freshman in my opinion, with a good arm," Van Horn said.
Austin Ledbetter put together 2 ⅓ solid innings, but what appeared to be a routine 1-2-3 double play cost him his shutout bid. With one down and the bases loaded in the sixth, he slipped, chunking the throw home and allowing a pair of unearned runs to come home.
"That’s a mental mistake and it ended up being a physical mistake," Van Horn said. "You know it just snowballed on us. I just think we didn’t play good."
Van Horn came out to get his righty, turning to Christian Foutch to clean up the mess. The freshman did not allow a ball to leave the infield, but the Trojan lead grew to 6-3 on shortstop Alex Seguine’s RBI groundout.
A two-out throwing error in the home half of the sixth brought the tying run to the plate with a chance to atone for Ledbetter’s miscue, but shortstop Harold Coll skied one to center for the third out.
The wheels fell completely off in the seventh, when Foutch allowed five straight Trojans to reach with two outs. The first looked like a routine single to left, but Hunter Grimes laid out several steps too early, turning it into an RBI double for the first run of the season against Foutch.
"You don’t dive for that ball, you just let it drop," Van Horn said.
Another RBI knock and a two-run bomb later, UALR led 10-3.
Left-hander Zack Morris struggled through the eighth, using 29 pitches — one of which was wild and scored a run — to get three outs.
Freshman Parker Coil worked a scoreless ninth for Arkansas, which stranded 10 runners and scored only one over the final six innings, limping its way to an 11-4 defeat.
Slavens said he thinks his team was more focused on the upcoming weekend than the game at hand.
"That’s on us, so now that the weekend’s here, we have to be ready to play," Slavens said.
Next up for the Razorbacks are the No. 16 Tennessee Volunteers, who will begin a three-game series at Baum-Walker Stadium at 7 p.m. Friday. Left-hander Hunter Hollan is set to duel against righty Andrew Lindsey in a contest that will air on the SEC Network and stream live on the ESPN app.
"I’m expecting the fans to show out like I’ve seen it before in regional play," Slavens said. "I mean, I expect it to be very similar to a regional game."
