FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 2 Arkansas and Missouri were tied at 2 heading to the bottom of the third at a cold, damn Baum-Walker Stadium Saturday night when the Hogs erupted for a 19-1 scoring outburst while taking a 21-3 run-rule win over the hapless Tigers.
Arkansas scored two runs in the bottom of the third, then five in each of the fourth and fifth innings before plating seven in the sixth. Missouri did manage one in the top of the fifth. Dave Van Horn talked about the win afterward.
"It wasn’t ideal weather," Van Horn said in an understatement. "I thought the grounds crew did a great job giving us an opportunity to play. When you look at the game, I thought Zach Root didn’t have his best stuff, but he competed really hard. Missouri, you have to give them credit, they fouled off a lot of pitches. Took some borderline pitches and they got his pitch count up a little bit. On the other end, offensively for us, I felt like we did a really good job of getting their starter’s pitch count up. I think he threw 35-plus, 38 pitches, first inning. A lot of times you don’t recover from that, but he did. Came back to give them a few more innings and almost got him through the fourth, and then we strung together some things there. Ended up scoring some runs and got him out of the game. Just a good job up-and-down our lineup of battling, getting pitch counts up.
"Cam Kozeal had a great game. Four hits and five RBIs, and used the whole field. It was really good to see. Good to see Iredale have a nice day, you know because, we’re hitting, but it’s not like it’s 1-through-9. Some guys are struggling just a little bit right now. We need to get some guys rolling, but we’ve got enough to put together some good innings if you’ll take a walk, which we did like 13 or 14 times. Got hit by a pitch, I don’t know, another couple, three or four times, and that's how you score 21 runs on 14 hits. It’s a good win for us, but we’ve got two more to go."
Kozeal was hot at Vanderbilt last weekend and didn't slow down against the Tigers. He had four of Arkansas' 14 hits and did knock in five runs. Brent Iredale had two hits and plated a pair of runs. He hit a nice blast over the fence in the bottom of the fourth.
"I think what it did is, it just, it maybe gave some guys a little confidence and really gave us some momentum," Van Horn said. "It was a big swing. We scored two, but then we also, we left a lot of runs out there early. We were one hit away from breaking it open and having a five or six-run lead. Then they tied it, we get two back, to put five up in the fourth, we felt like we were in control there and then we did it again in the fifth. They just used some guys they don’t use a whole lot there at the end. Yeah, it was a big swing. Pitch before that, he fouled it off, and then he got one he could handle and he hammered it."
In addition to temperatures dropping most of the day on Saturday and flooding conditions in Fayetteville it almost seemed a miracle the game got played.
"Well, the grass was really wet," Van Horn said. "The ball would roll through it. Infielders were having to deal with throwing a wet ball across the diamond. Same with the outfielders, if it got there on the ground. It was misting the whole time. It was almost like we were in a cloud, but it was the same for both teams. We did a good job of handling the ball, and it definitely helped us."
Root (5-1) got the win despite as Van Horn said not having his best stuff maybe, at least in part, because of the weather. He worked 5.0 innings. Root allowed three hits, three runs, two walks and struck out seven. In his last inning, the top of the fifth, Root allowed a walk to the leadoff hitter. Peyton Basler followed with a double that plated Jedier Hernandez. However, Root retired the next three hitters on two fly outs and a strike out.
"Good pitchers find a way to get out of those and that’s how you keep your ERA down, it’s how you get to start, and you got more than one or two pitches in there you can get people out with," Van Horn said. "Missouri did a good job against him. They fought him. But he also came through big with a couple of big outs there in situations where they could have got the lead or got back in the game or whatever the situation was. We were really glad to see him get through that fifth inning because his pitch count was up there. Maybe one more hitter if he didn’t get that last one. I think he struck out a right-hander, had a lefty on deck. It was good. We came in and we score five runs."
Dylan Carter worked the sixth and then Will McEntire made his first appearance since a very disappointing outing against Missouri State. McEntire retired all three hitters he faced striking out two of them.
"Well, I commented on it after the game," Van Horn said. "I thought he did a great job. He pitched like we had a two-run lead instead of a big-time lead. He hit his spots. He even threw a changeup, he threw a big curveball to end the game, not just throwing the cutter. He got up to 90 mph. I thought Carter did a great job in his inning, as well. Those guys are still available tomorrow, if needed."
Six Missouri pitchers combined to allow 14 hits, walked 14, struck out 10 and hit four Razorback hitters. Starter Kaden Jacobi (2-4) took the loss. He worked 3.2 innings throwing 103 pitches in that time. He allowed eight hits, eight runs, walked four and did strike out seven Hogs.
Justin Thomas Jr. had two hits and knocked in four runs. Nolan Souza only had one hit, but plated three teammates. Ryder Helfrick also had two hits and got a pair of runs across the plate.
Arkansas (28-3, 9-1) and Missouri (11-18, 0-10) will play two games on Sunday with both being seven innings. The first game will begin at 1 p.m.
Photos Craven Whitlow
