FAYETTEVILLE -- It wasn't necessarily pretty, but No. 4 Arkansas overcame three errors and stranding 14 runners to take a 7-4 win over No. 19 Auburn on Sunday in Plainsman Park.
The win allowed Arkansas (36-12, 16-8) to take the series 2-1 and remain in first place in the SEC West. Arkansas now has a two-game lead over Texas A&M and LSU as well as three-game advantage over Auburn with six games remaining. Dave Van Horn was elated to see his team get out of a tough place to play with a pair of wins.
"Wow, what a big win for our team," Van Horn said. "I thought it was going to be a great game either way. I knew both teams really were going to play hard. We did. They did."
On Sunday, the Razorbacks punched out 13 hits and got outstanding pitching from Jaxon Wiggins, Will McEntire and Evan Taylor. Cayden Wallace, Robert Moore, Braydon Webb, Jace Bohrofen and Jalen Battles each had two hits to lead the offense.
"We got fortunate on a couple of things," Van Horn said. "We hit the ball extremely hard all day. Early it looked like it wasn’t going to go our way because in the first inning I think we lined out three times and didn’t score a run. They hit a 3-0 pitch out of the ballpark and we’re down 3-0. You’re thinking, ‘Wow, they just let a guy green-light it 3-0 with a runner on second."
Auburn got their first inning extended following an Arkansas error. Bobby Peirce made the Hogs pay by hitting a two-out home run for a 2-0 lead.
Arkansas responded back in the top of the second with Webb scoring on a Battles ground out. Then Bohrofen tied the game when he came home a double by Wallace.
In the top of the third, Arkansas struck again. Moore started the inning off with a double. After an out, Kendall Diggs got an infield hit that allowed Moore to go to third. Webb then delivered with a three-run shot over the fence in left center for a 5-2 advantage.
While Auburn used six pitchers, Van Horn was able to only use two.
"But our guys just kept swinging and fighting," Van Horn said. "I thought Wiggins, he battled through it. We made an error in the first inning that probably cost him 10, 15 pitches, and it was a little frustrating. But he had a really, really, good outing for us. He gave us five strong innings. Really threw a lot of strikes. Struck out, like, six hitters."
Wiggins (6-1) worked 5.0 innings, allowed four hits, three runs, only one earned, walked two, struck out six, allowed two home runs and threw 90 pitches. Then McEntire, who has been Arkansas' midweek starter, came on to work 3.1 innings. He allowed three hits, four strikeouts, one run and threw 52 pitches.
"Then obviously Will McEntire came in and did exactly what we were hoping he could do," Van Horn said. "Give us three innings, maybe more. I think he might have just run out of gas. Maybe we threw the wrong pitch."
When McEntire ran into trouble in the bottom of the ninth Van Horn turned to Evan Taylor. Auburn got to within three with one out and had runners on the corners. Battles had just made his second error of the game to give the Tigers some hope. However, Taylor got Auburn's Blake Rambusch, who has the most hits of any player in the SEC, to hit into a 6-4-3 double play started by Battles. Moore made a good pivot and throw at second to Brady Slavens to end the game. Auburn did appeal that Rambusch was safe at first, but after a review the call of out stood and the game ended.
"Just really glad that we got another opportunity at that double play ball and we got it," Van Horn said.
Van Horn was asked about the errors, six in the series, by his team that came into the series leading the SEC in fielding.
"We made a few more errors than normal this weekend, and I really don’t know why," Van Horn said. "The ball in the ninth inning that was hit at Battles, it kind of jumped away from him. I think he makes it most all the time. I really don’t know what happened.
"Honestly, I was just hoping they’d hit another one to him, because I knew he wouldn’t boot that second one. They did and we turned a double play on probably one of their fastest runners. Robert did a great job with it. Cayden made that error in the first inning. He did a nice job getting the ball. He didn’t square his shoulders up and make a throw. He just kind of threw it sideways."
In the bottom of the third, Auburn slugger Sonny DiChiara hit a solo shot to pull the Tigers to within 5-3.
The Razorbacks got that run back in the top of the fifth when Webb walked to start the inning. After two batters were retired, Zack Gregory also walked. Then Wallace hit a double that plated Webb for 6-3 lead by Hogs.
In the top of the sixth, Slavens reached on a fielding error by the Auburn pitcher. Slavens hit a chopper to Tommy Sheehan who couldn’t field it cleanly. Kendall Diggs then reached on a fielder’s choice. Webb and Bohrofen both walked. Battles then hit a long fly to right field that allowed Diggs to tag at third and score to make it 7-3.
Joseph Gonzalez (6-2) took the loss for Auburn, but he has been good all year for the Tigers. He worked 2.2 innings, allowed nine hits, five runs, all earned, one home run and threw 53 pitches. Van Horn talked about the Hogs getting to a very good pitcher that quickly.
"I thought we had a really good game plan, plus he’s struggled a little bit against lefties and we loaded them up for the most part," Van Horn said. "They all did a good job. They all contributed for the most part. I think we frustrated him because we weren’t grounding out. He’s a sinker ball guy, likes to throw a lot of changeups, pitch backwards. He got his fastball, he threw it right at 90, but maybe a little more here and there. It just seemed like we were seeing it good. We laid off some borderline pitches early in the count and, man, when we got a pitch to hit, we hit it good. They saw that, too. That’s why they got him out of there."
Van Horn did insert Gregory into the lineup for Chris Lanzilli, who bats right, and used Diggs, a lefty, all weekend as the designated hitter. Van Horn also praised the Arkansas bullpen. Friday starter Connor Noland, who usually goes very deep into the games, was gone after four innings and 78 pitches in a game the Hogs rallied to win. Then on Saturday Hagen Smith also just worked four innings in a 5-3 loss.
"It was big," Van Horn said. "Our bullpen, we've used them a lot. They've been good all year, and they did it again. For the most part, they did a great job and kept us in the game. I mean, we had a chance to win that thing yesterday, we just didn't win it. You look back at the whole weekend, we're down five to nothing on Friday, we come back and win. Yesterday it's tied up going into the, I don't know, the bottom of the eighth, and it got away from us. We played pretty well. We really competed hard. I was proud of our guys and the way they got after it down there."
In Friday's game the Hogs battled from down 6-2 to get the 11-8 victory. Taylor (4-0) got the win in relief.
Bohrofen cut the Auburn to two when he hit a home run in the top of the sixth with Webb on base. That pulled the Hogs to within 6-4.
That set the stage for last Saturday night’s hero Diggs to come up big. With Moore and Slavens on base Diggs sent one over the fence in right field to give the Razorbacks their first lead of the game at 8-6 in the top of the seventh. Prior to Diggs’ home run, Michael Turner had scored on an infield hit by Moore and then an error on the Auburn pitcher.
In the top of the eighth, Moore hit a shot over the fence in left field that plated Turner and Gregory giving the Hogs some breathing room at 11-6.
On Saturday the Hogs were up 3-2 before the Tigers scored the final three runs to win it. Brady Tygart (2-2) took the loss.
Arkansas will return to Baum-Walker Stadium on Friday to host Vanderbilt for three games. Friday's opener will begin at 6:30 p.m. and televised on the SEC Network+.