By Otis Kirk
FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas scored early and often on its way to a 21-5 win over Little Rock Tuesday night in Baum-Walker Stadium.
The Trojans jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, but the Hogs answered with nine in the bottom of the inning. Arkansas sent 14 batters to the plate in the first. Dave Van Horn saw his team explode and take control almost immediately.
"It looked like it was going to be a slugfest," Van Horn said. "Obviously we came in the bottom of the the first and they got our leadoff man out. I thought (Hunter) Grimes had a great at-bat. He ended up walking. I think it was 2-2. He got a pitch that was really low called on him early in the at-bat. He shook it off and ended up taking the walk and then after that, it was a couple more walks, a couple hits and you saw what happened.
"I thought the offense did a great job of not trying to do too much. They passed it to the next guy. If they threw a strike, take a swing. But they if they were in a hitter’s count, they let pitches go by that they didn’t like. We got in a lot of hitter’s count. We walked 15 times and got hit a couple more and hit a couple home runs."
Cody Adcock (3-1), who has been a weekend starter at times, pitched four innings. He allowed five hits, two runs, walked three and only struck out one. He threw 70 pitches so is he going to be available against Tennessee this weekend?
"I’m not worried about him pitching this weekend right now," Van Horn said. "We just need to get him going. It didn’t go very good. We just wanted to him out there to throw the ball over the plate, see if he could get them out. He struggled the first inning, maybe even the second inning. He got a little bit better. It looked like he settled down.
"To me, he’s a little jittery, he’s a little wound up. He’s got to calm down, and we’re trying to get him there. But thank goodness our offense kicked it into gear and gave us an opportunity to leave him out there for a while. Because if we wouldn’t have scored, he wouldn’t have stayed out there."
The Hogs had 13 hits in the game. Jace Bohrofen and Harold Coll hit home runs. Bohrofen drove in four runs and Coll three. Chance Vaught (1-2) was the Trojans starter and took the loss. He faced six hitters in his 0.1 inning of work. He allowed two hits, five runs and walked three. He was the first of six Trojans pitchers on the night. Little Rock coach Chris Curry liked the start, but it went down hill quickly.
“The game quickly changed for us from scoring a couple of runs in the first inning and starting the way we wanted to what happened,” Curry said, “to being disappointed that we we're not more competitive on the mound.
“I have not seen a box score yet, but I bet the walks were north of 15. That’s the frustrating part. And that’s the challenge every time we play against a quality opponent. I mean let’s not give them anything."
The Trojans actually walked 15 Razorbacks. Caleb Cali, Peyton Holt and Kendall Diggs each had two hits for the Hogs. Tavian Josenberger, Hudson Polk and Mason Neville each had one hit.
The same two teams will play on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Arkansas (26-6) will send Ben Bybee to the mound facing Little Rock (17-12).