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FAYETTEVILLE — Not even a rain delay that pushed the game deep into the night would let the clock strike midnight on Arkansas’ magical season.

The Razorbacks erased an early three-run deficit and won in walk-off fashion Friday night, with Charlie Welch’s pinch-hit RBI double in the ninth lifting them to a 4-3 win over No. 8 Florida.

The hit sent a packed Baum-Walker Stadium into a frenzy, as it gave No. 1 Arkansas its second ever outright SEC regular-season title - and first since 1999 - while also making it 10 for 10 in conference series this year.

"It hasn't set in yet,” Welch said. “It's just surreal being out here with these guys in front of this fan base. I mean, you can't beat it. It's unbelievable, really."

Most of the 11,084 fans waited out the 1-hour, 45-minute delay at the start of the game and they were treated to a classic finish.

In the ninth inning of a tie game, Casey Opitz got things started when hit a low fastball for a line drive just out of the reach of the Gators’ leaping shortstop. It got into the left-center gap for a double, but center fielder Jud Fabian slipped and the ball rolled all the way to the warning track, allowing Opitz to take third on the play.

After a pop out by Jalen Battles, head coach Dave Van Horn called upon the best bat on his bench. Coming into the game, Welch was hitting .400 in 35 at bats and was an impressive 5 for 9 as a pinch hitter.

The junior college transfer has become a staple of Arkansas’ offense, but he still described his ninth-inning at bat as an “unreal opportunity.”

“He's been plugging me into some big spots lately in pinch-hit at-bats,” Welch said. “I’ve been getting the job done, and he just looked at me and said, 'Are you ready?' I said, 'Yeah, let's go.’”

With the game-winning run just 90 feet away, the Gators brought in one of their outfielders to serve as an extra infielder and played everyone up. The first baseman, for example, was halfway up the line.

Florida reliever Jack Leftwich, who is considered a top prospect for this summer’s MLB Draft, quickly fell behind 3-0, though, and the wheels were turning inside Van Horn’s mind.

“Honestly I was thinking I ought to give him the green light, give him the “hit” sign,” Van Horn said. “He was looking at me and I didn’t give it to him. He threw a good strike and I don’t know if it was down the middle or away, (but) I was kind of frustrated with myself about not letting him swing.”

Welch fouled off the next pitch to get into a full count and Van Horn said he wasn’t sure if the Gators would even try to pitch to him. He speculated they’d throw him a slider down and away to try to get him to chase because a walk didn’t really mean anything and it’d set up the double play.

Instead, Leftwich left a fastball over the plate and a little away. Welch made solid contact on it and Van Horn said they knew it over as soon as the ball left the bat.

“I was looking for the fastball again, was going to try to elevate it,” Welch said. “He had been doing that to righties early on in his outing, so I got it and put it deep in the gap."

Opitz waited at third to tag up on the play, but the ball actually got over the outfielder’s head in right field and he was able to jog home. He emphatically stepped on the plate to end the game and then he and his teammates mobbed Welch.

It was the Razorbacks’ 21st SEC win of the season, which is second only to the 1999 team’s 22 wins, and clinched the overall title thanks to Tennessee’s loss to South Carolina earlier in the day.

They also joined 2013 Vanderbilt as the only teams to win each of their 10 SEC series since the conference went to that format in 1996.

“They’re really hard to get,” Van Horn said about the championship. “So many things have to happen over a 30-game season to have that opportunity. We’ve just played really well every weekend - some better than others, but always just enough.”

This is the second overall SEC title for Van Horn since he returned to coach his alma mater. The Razorbacks shared it with Georgia in 2004, his second year.

That team was picked to finish last in the West and near the bottom of the standings, but ended up securing a top-eight national seed and making it to the College World Series.

“This team reminds me of that team a little bit,” Van Horn said. “This team’s probably a little bit more talented, obviously, but it’s got the same grit. They just kind of show up and get it done.”

Bolden Bounces Back

As it has several times this year, Arkansas got off to an inauspicious start Friday night.

Florida jumped on starter Caleb Bolden early, notching two runs in the first before a leadoff home run by Sterlin Thompson in the second made it 3-0. After the long ball, though, the right-hander retired 12 of the next 14 batters he faced.

“It started out like it was going to get a little crazy,” Van Horn said. “You’ve got to give credit to Bolden, though. He really settled in and gave us…four innings and held down a pretty good lineup, a powerful lineup.”

Van Horn tipped his cap to Kris Armstrong for his two-out double in the first because he hadn’t hit a ball down the left field line all year. He got his hands inside a pitch that was up and in and hit it the other way.

However, Bolden’s next pitch didn’t require such a great swing, as he threw a slider right down the middle of the plate and Kendrick Calilao hit it for a two-run single. That was indicative of what he struggled with early, as he made mistakes when he was ahead or even in the count and Florida capitalized.

He managed to avoid those kind of mistakes after that first hitter in the second inning and finished with seven strikeouts while giving up three earned runs on four hits and one walk in four innings.

“Then he settled in, started throwing his fastball in, busting them in a little bit and got some quick outs,” Van Horn said. “They got into one ball that the wind kept it in the park, but other than that, he did a nice job.”

Injury Update

The first guy Van Horn turned to out of the bullpen was right-hander Peyton Pallette. The former Game 2 starter, he has also proven to be a capable long reliever and that’s what Arkansas needed with Bolden going just four innings.

Unfortunately, the Benton native had to be pulled from the game after facing just five batters. Following a leadoff single by Armstrong in the sixth, he threw a first-pitch ball to Calilao and pitching coach Matt Hobbs almost immediately went out to the mound to check on his pitcher.

The trainer wasn’t too far behind and Pallette was seen pointing at his elbow before he walked back to the dugout. He was done after just 24 pitches.

“At first it didn’t look real good,” Van Horn said. “We feel a little bit better about it now. It was looked at just a little bit, but we probably won’t know anything until probably Monday. … I think it’s feeling a little better is what I was told a while ago.”

The Razorbacks plan to get an MRI on his arm as soon as possible.

Marvelous Monke

Although he was already getting loose in the bullpen, left-hander Caden Monke had to enter the game a little sooner than expected.

He inherited a runner on first with no outs, plus a quiet crowd that was seemingly down about the injury to Pallette. Monke quickly changed that, inducing a 5-4-3 double play and then striking out Kirby McMullen on three straight swings and misses.

That re-energized the fans and was the start of three dominant innings in which Monke gave up just one walk and one hit while striking out seven of 10 batters.

“He threw really good while he was out there,” Van Horn said. “I know we struck out a lot of their guys in the second half of that game. That’s always good on a wet field late at night when it’s hard to field (because) the ball slips, but he was as good as he’s been.”

Van Horn said he was considering sending him back out in the ninth inning if Florida still led 3-2, but he had also let the coaches know he was out of gas after throwing 42 pitches.

Another Comeback

The early deficit Arkansas found itself in Friday night was nothing new. It had already rallied from down 3-plus runs in 11 of its 40 wins, so there was never any panic in the dugout.

“It seems like we’re behind a lot, maybe 75 percent of the time,” Van Horn said. “The other team seems to score first. It doesn’t seem to faze us too much.”

The Razorbacks started chipping away at the Gators’ lead right away. In the bottom of the second, Christian Franklin hit an opposite-field home run - his 12th long ball of the season - to get them on the board.

Florida starter Hunter Barco proceeded to issue three straight free passes - two walks and a HBP - before Jalen Battles hit a solid line drive into left. It was plenty deep enough for a sacrifice fly that pulled Arkansas within 3-2, but that was hit for a while.

After stranding runners in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings, the Razorbacks were down to their final four outs when Robert Moore stepped to the plate. He fell behind in the count and then crushed a game-tying home run off the new building beyond the right field wall.

“I think he kind of shocked them when he hit it,” Van Horn said. “I mean, he was down 1-2 before he knew it, fouled off a pitch or two, took a pitch and then bang. … We knew right when it left the bat the game was tied.”

It was Moore’s team-leading 13th home run of the season, as well as his 46th RBI, which is third on the team behind only Brady Slavens (54) and Franklin (50).

“Robert has done a tremendous job coming through in the clutch for us this year,” Van Horn said. “Just a big-time swing from a guy who wants to be in the middle of it.”

Calling the Kopps

After the game, Van Horn revealed that he was prepared to bring in stud closer Kevin Kopps in the eighth inning if Arkansas had the lead or in the ninth inning if the score was tied. The latter ended up happening thanks to Moore’s home run.

Because the hit happened so quickly and came with two outs in the inning, though, he didn’t get a lot of time to warm up before it was time for him to pitch.

Two of the right-hander’s first three pitches to McMullen missed the strike zone and he eventually hit the third baseman’s elbow in a 2-2 count. However, the Razorbacks immediately protested and a replay review showed that he was hit because he stuck his elbow out. It was changed to a called strike, which resulted in a strikeout.

That seemed to kick Kopps into gear because he then threw six straight strikes to strike out the side and send the game to the bottom of the ninth.

“It’s like it got him going, it got him loose,” Van Horn said. “I don’t think he had quite enough time to get ready as he would have or we would have really wanted him to. … I think that got his blood pumping pretty good.”

Thanks to the walk-off win, Kopps earned the victory to improve to 10-0 to go along with his eight saves. He also lowered his ERA to 0.75 and now has 97 strikeouts in 60 1/3 innings.

Up Next

Arkansas will go for the sweep of Florida at 2 p.m. CT Saturday. The game will be streamed on SEC Network-Plus and televised on the SEC Network Alternate channel.

Van Horn indicated that he’d be changing up the lineup and announced right-hander Jaxon Wiggins (3-1, 6.28 ERA) would start on the mound. Left-hander Lael Lockhart was going to get the start, but wrapping up the conference title Friday likely gave him some freedom to start the freshman.

Kopps definitely won’t pitch in the regular-season finale and Van Horn seemed to hint that he’ll get some extended rest.

Florida is scheduled to start right-hander Franco Aleman (1-3, 5.26 ERA).

Other Tidbits

~It didn’t result in a run, but designated hitter Matt Goodheart fouled off four straight pitches in a full count before finally lining a single into center in the seventh inning. The hit snapped an 0 for 19 stretch by the senior. “That was a big-time at bat and really good to see and I was happy for Matt because he was really frustrated,” Van Horn said. “I hadn’t seen him that frustrated in a long time.”

~The Razorbacks have now hit 87 home runs this season, which is one shy of tying the 2019 team’s mark for the third most in school history. They are still well ahead of pace to break the school record of 98 hit in 2018.

~Because Franklin hit his in the second inning, there was briefly a four-way tie for the team lead in home runs Friday night. It was his 12th, which was tied with Moore, Goodheart and Cayden Wallace, and one ahead of Slavens. Moore’s eighth-inning homer put him back in the team lead with 13.

~Arkansas pitchers combined for 17 strikeouts Friday night, which was one shy of matching the single-game UA record. They now have 33 through the first two games of the series and 532 for the season.

~A day after notching a golden sombrero, Florida star center fielder Jud Fabian managed to put the ball in play once Friday - flying out to center - but struck out in his other three at bats. That means he’s 0 for 8 with seven strikeouts in the series.