No. 5 Arkansas produced more offense on Sunday as they defeated Michigan 8-6 in their final game in the Amegy Bank College Baseball Classic in Arlington.
Arkansas (6-1) bounced back from an opening night loss to Kansas State to defeat No. 22 TCU and then Michigan. Dave Van Horn was pleased with his team bouncing back from Friday's loss.
"Great job last two days finding ways to win those ballgames after losing on Friday," Van Horn said. "Today an outstanding job by our hitters starting that rally in the second inning with two outs. Walks, a double and I don't know what all went down. But we got some runs and got it going. Got their starter's pitch count up."
It wasn't all smooth sailing for the Razorbacks on Sunday though as starting pitcher Gage Wood departed after two innings with an injury. Van Horn said he didn't know what the issue was as Wood was pointing to his shoulder.
“We tell our pitchers to be really cautious and if there’s any issue at all, don’t try to tough it out," Van Horn said. "Let’s just get it evaluated and go from there.”
Wood had been impressive in his second start of the season. In two innings, Wood allowed two his, one run and struck out six. The run he allowed was unearned. Arkansas ended up using eight pitchers with Dylan Carter (2-0) getting the win and Tate McGuire earning his first save of the season. Carter followed Wood to the mound. He allowed three hits, no runs, walked one and struck out a hitter. Parker Coil, Carson Wiggins, Will McEntire, Cole Gibler and Colin Fisher also pitched.
Michigan (4-3) has now lost three games in a row. They came to Arlington with a 4-1 mark, but went winless there. Starter Gavin DeVooght was roughed up and took the loss. DeVooght (2-1) worked 2.1 innings, allowed four hits, five runs, three earned runs, three walks and a trio of strikeouts.
Michigan took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first off Wood. In the bottom of the inning, the Razorbacks scored two runs. Wehiwa Aloy, who was 4 for 4 in the game, doubled to left field with one out. Logan Maxwell walked. Brent Iredale was hit by a pitch. Cam Kozeal reached on an error on Michigan's first baseman. Aloy scored as did Logan Maxwell.
The Razorbacks added two more in the second with a double by Charles Davalan and single by Iredale being the biggest hits around walks to Aloy and Maxwell. The Hogs plated three more runs in the bottom of the third to blow the game open at 7-1. Kendall Diggs doubled ,Nolan Souza walked and Justin Thomas was hit by a pitch. Davalon singled and Aloy walked.
Arkansas' final run came in the bottom of the fifth when Aloy hit a solo home run over the fence in right field.
McEntire entered the game in the top of the sixth. He was greeted by back-to-back home runs by Cole Caruso and Robert Hamchuk to start the inning. Michigan added a run in the top of the eighth. Down 8-4 in the ninth, they got to reliever Coil for two runs. McGuire entered and shut the door on the Wolverines retiring pinch hitter Will Rogers.
"It was really good in the eighth inning Coil comes in and gets three outs on five pitches," Van Horn said. "But in the ninth they got it going again. You could just see everything matters. That's something we need to get better at. We need to finish teams off."
Arkansas will return to Baum-Walker Stadium on Tuesday to host Grambling (4-3) at 3 p.m. and can be streamed on the SEC Network+.