FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 6 Arkansas struggled on Sunday falling to Stetson 4-1 at Baum-Walker Stadium after easily winning the first two games of the series.
Arkansas was held to five hits and stranded eight on the bases. The lone run came when Damian Ruiz led off the bottom of the first with a double. He then scored on a Camden Kozeal double with one out. Arkansas only managed three hits and no runs the remainder of the game. Dave Van Horn saw Arkansas (12-4) fall for the third time at home and the SEC portion of the schedule hasn't started yet. Van Horn was quick to credit Stetson starter Trace Hartman for keeping his hitters off balance all day.
"What he did was throw the ball with some sink and our hitters didn't make adjustments," Van Horn said. "You can ask guys to move up in the box and they did it a little bit. We didn't hit the ball hard five times all game and a couple of them were hits. Maika Niu hit the ball hard a couple of times."
Stetson did all its damage in the top of the fourth against Arkansas starter Colin Fisher who was rolling until that point. Foster Apple led off the top of the fourth with a solo home run, his first of the season and just second in career.
Following Apple's home run, Carson Brumbaugh committed his first of two errors with a bad throw to first base. After a fly out, Landon Russell doubled to move Yohann Dessurealt to third. Jayden Hylton then unloaded a 3-run blast off Fisher to put Stetson on top and they stayed there rest of game.
"He just pitched," Van Horn said of Hartman. "Give credit to him. We would get 3-2 counts and couldn't find a way to get it done. This guy is just a two-pitch guy. He threw an 84 (miles per hour) pitch and 91 fastball. He didn't make too many mistakes with it. We had a chance in the first, but once you got to a certain point in the lineup it didn't happen."
Ruiz and Niu had two hits each and Kozeal had the other. Van Horn used three pitchers on the day. Fisher (2-1) took the loss. He pitched 4.0 innings allowing six hits, three of the runs were earned, walked none and struck out four. Cole Gibler worked 3.0 innings striking out two and walking a pair while not allowing any hits. Ethan McElvain finished the final pair of innings allowing one hit, a walk and fanned three hitters.
Hartman (2-1) got the win. He pitched 6.2 innings allowing the five hits, one run, walked four and struck out three. Andrew Lepine was excellent in relief and picked up his first save of the day. He didn't allow any hits, walked two and struck out a pair.
Russell and Juan De la Cruz each had two hits for Stetson. Apple, Hylton and Paul Napolitano each added one hit.
The Hogs had a chance in the bottom of the fifth. Carter Rutenbar, starting in right field, reached for the second time on a walk to start the inning. But then Brumbaugh hit into a double play. They also got Niu on to start the bottom of the seventh, but didn't take advantage of it.
Arkansas and Stetson (6-10) will play the final game of the series Monday with the first pitch at noon. The Razorbacks open SEC play on Friday night hosting Mississippi State for a three-game series.
