Young pitchers wild in Game 2 loss to Texas

AUSTIN, Texas — With a conference series on the horizon, Dave Van Horn turned Wednesday’s game over to the young arms and it went poorly.

Six freshmen and a sophomore making his debut combined to throw the final seven innings of Arkansas’ 7-6 loss to Texas and were responsible for all seven runs by the Longhorns, who salvaged the midweek split at Disch-Falk Field.

“That was ugly,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “That would’ve been hard to watch from the stands if you really like baseball.”

Zach Zubia’s game-tying RBI single in the sixth was the only run-scoring hit of the night for Texas, as Arkansas pitchers issued 14 walks - tying a 1989 game against Oklahoma State for the second most in UA history and one shy of the record set last year against Alabama - and hit four batters with pitches for 18 total free passes.

In fact, four of those came with the bases loaded to account for four of the Longhorns’ runs. Another scored when catcher Zack Plunkett sailed a throw back to the pitcher over his head and the other came via a sacrifice fly.

“There were some good things in there with a couple of our pitchers, but for the most part they struggled with command,” Van Horn said. “We walked them and we hit ‘em and that’s why they beat us.”

Of the seven relievers Arkansas used Wednesday night, three of them will be left off the 27-man roster used in SEC play for this weekend’s series at Alabama. That includes freshmen Evan Taylor, Jacob Burton, Liam Henry, Elijah Trest, Caden Monke and Carter Sells, as well as sophomore junior college transfer Collin Taylor.

Top bullpen guys Jacob Kostyshock, Kevin Kopps and Matt Cronin didn’t even pitch in the midweek games as they prepared for the Crimson Tide.

“Those guys weren’t even on the board,” Van Horn said. “They lifted weights today, conditioned and threw bullpens and were getting ready for the weekend.”

In addition to throwing all of the young pitchers, the Razorbacks also started their backup catcher, Plunkett, and inserted the struggling Jordan McFarland at designated hitter. Despite all of those moves, they still had the tying run in scoring position in the ninth inning against Texas’ closer.

“I liked what I saw from our team,” Van Horn said. “I didn’t play a couple of our starters and I threw a bunch of young kids today and we still had a chance to win the game, so that makes me feel pretty good about some of these players.”

The series at Alabama begins at 6 p.m. Friday, with the other games scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. All three will be streamed on SEC Network-plus, meaning they can be watched online on ESPN3.com or the WatchESPN app.

Wasted Chances After 2nd Inning

Arkansas actually jumped out to an early lead thanks to another big second inning. After scoring six runs in that frame Tuesday, it plated four in Game 2.

McFarland got things started by hitting hit by a pitch - the first of eight combined between the two teams - and then moved to third on a ground-rule double by Jack Kenley. A safety squeeze bunt by Plunkett was sandwiched between RBI singles by Jacob Nesbit and Christian Franklin for the first three runs and Arkansas added another thanks to a throwing error by Texas shortstop Masen Hibbeler.

That gave the Razorbacks a 4-0 lead, but it was a struggle from that point on. Aside from Dominic Fletcher’s two-out RBI double in the fourth, they couldn’t come up with a big hit and stranded seven runners on base, including six in scoring position. Arkansas went 0 for 7 with runners on second or third during that span.

The biggest blow came in the third inning when it loaded the bases with one out and had RBI-machine Christian Franklin coming to the plate. He hit a grand slam in Tuesday’s game and leads the team with 23 RBIs, but grounded into an inning-ending double play.

A sacrifice fly in that situation would have put the Razorbacks up 5-0 and a basic single would have made it 6-0, all the while keeping momentum in their dugout.

“We needed to get at least one run there,” Van Horn said. “Instead, we don’t get anything, momentum goes back to their dugout and we have all these young guys coming in that are having trouble throwing it over the plate, so you could see it swinging.”

Arkansas’ only other run came on a two-out double by Nesbit in the ninth inning. That pulled the Razorbacks within one and put the tying run in scoring position, but Matt Goodheart - pinch hitting for Plunkett - struck out to end the game.

Martin’s Struggles

Perhaps the most disappointing play so far for Arkansas has been preseason All-American Casey Martin. With an 0-for-4 day at the plate Wednesday, his batting average has plummeted to .247.

Dating back to the Missouri series, he is just 2 for 21 with six strikeouts and both hits were singles. Van Horn said he thinks Martin is “pressing a little bit.”

“It seems like he’s behind in the count just about every at bat,” Van Horn said. “He hasn’t been in too many hitters’ counts, plus counts. If he swings at the first pitch, it seems like he’s not getting a hit, but if he doesn’t swing at it, it’s a strike and he gets behind and they throw him a nice pitch.

“It seems like he’s 0-2, 1-2 before he knows what happened. We’re just hoping he’ll pick it up this weekend. I think he will.”

Don’t Call Me Angus

As bad as the bullpen was, the Razorbacks did get off to a good start on the mound thanks to another solid outing by redshirt sophomore Marshall Denton.

The side-arming right-hander formerly known as “Angus” threw two scoreless innings, allowing only one hit and one walk while striking out one. Considering he needed only 34 pitches to get through those innings, Arkansas could have left him in for the third inning, but Van Horn opted to save him for the Alabama series.

“We thought about it, but obviously he’s a guy that we may need on Saturday or Sunday,” Van Horn said. “The weekend is so important. We just feel like we needed to get him out of there.”

Since giving up the walk-off home run at USC, Denton has thrown 6 2/3 innings and allowed only five base runners - four hits and one walk.

Other Tidbits

~Another good crowd was on hand Wednesday night, with an announced attendance of 6,260.

~Arkansas’ official Twitter account - @RazorbackBSB - took a shot at its former SWC rival with a now-deleted tweet that depicted the scoreboard at Disch-Falk Field with a photoshopped sign that read “Roger Clemens went here and his sons too.”

~Wednesday’s loss was the Razorbacks’ first against their former SWC rival since the 2005 Austin Regional, snapping their five-game winning streak in the series. Previously, they had never won more than two in a row over Texas despite playing more than 100 games dating back to the early 1900s.

~With an RBI single in the second inning, Nesbit extended his hitting streak to 11 games and on-base streak to 18 games. In fact, he has reached base in 20 of 21 games this season and the only time he failed to do so was the Eastern Illinois game in which he laid down two sacrifice bunts.

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