No. 3 Arkansas used the long ball including eight runs in the fifth inning to take a 12-3 win over No. 15 Ole Miss Saturday night in Oxford.
When Arkansas (17-2, 1-1) got home runs they came in droves. In the fifth, Charles Davalan, Wehiwa Aloy and Kuhio Aloy hit back-to-back-to-back home runs. In the top of the ninth, Logan Maxwell and Nolan Souza hit back-to-back home runs. Dave Van Horn talked about the bats exploding like that.
"I felt a lot that the hitters were really frustrated because they felt like we were seeing the ball well, we just never really put together that inning yesterday and then today we felt like we should have scored more runs a couple of times," Van Horn said. "I think there was one inning there where we had runners at first and second, nobody out, and we didn’t score and that was with 3, 4 and 5 coming up after him. And then when the fifth got here and Davalan hit the home run to give us the lead and then the next pitch was just jolted to center field and then the next pitch was an absolute rocket that got out of here. I didn’t think it had enough height.
"It was just a lot of excitement in the dugout because all of a sudden, two minutes earlier we were down a run and now all of a sudden we’re up three or four runs. I really liked the way we continued the inning. A lot of times you hit three homers in a row and you just scored four runs, the inning kind of slows down and we ended up scoring four more. I think we scored seven runs before they got us out. So it was very emotional in the dugout. Guys were excited. We feel like we’re explosive and we can do that type of stuff. It was really good to have it happen when it did because we’re on the road, we’re into SEC play and we’re just coming off a loss, so it was huge."
Arkansas was down a run because Gabe Gaeckle struggled in the first inning. He got a strike out on leadoff hitter Hayden Federico, but a wild pitch on strike three allowed him to reach first. Luke Hill doubled and Mitchell Sanford walked to load the bases with no outs. Ryan Moerman was hit by a pitch allowing Federico to score. Isaac Humphrey allowing another run to score. But then Gaeckle got a strikeout and double play to escape the inning with just two runs scoring.
"I saw a really good pitcher," Van Horn said. "I mean, he got off to a rough start. He strikes out the leadoff man on a slider that, it looked like it hit the back of the plate. Already wet around home plate. It got by the catcher, and then it just didn’t go good. You know, he had two strikes on 2-hole hitter who’s hitting about .350, and he hits that ball off the end of the bat but it splits the gap. It wasn’t going real good, but he kept chipping away. I mean, he got his pitch count way up in the first. You know, he got the double-play ball from Furness. Really jammed him bad. Couldn’t get out of the box. I didn’t think it was going to be a double-play, and I thought Wehiwa was just going to arm fake and look to see if he could catch the runner coming around third too far. As a matter of fact, I started looking left and I realized he was throwing the other way, and he got him.
"It was amazing to get out of that with only two runs, and then I thought Gaeckle was amazing after that. As a matter of fact, threw right around 80 pitches in four innings and he would have come right out for the fifth. He was fine, but he sat in there for, I don’t know, however long our inning took, and we just didn’t feel good about that. We thought, let’s get him iout. Long season, buit I thought he was really good tonight. I think he ended up with, what? Eight strikeouts in four innings and showed a lot of toughness. I think that might be something looking back, we’re going to say ‘that really flipped it’."
Gaeckle worked 4.0 innings. He allowed just one hit, the two runs, walked three and struck out eight.
Arkansas had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Davalan got the first of his four hits. He worked his way around the bases on a walk and ground out. Davalan scored on a sacrifice fly by Brent Iredale.
In the top of the fifth the Razorbacks scored eight runs on seven hits, an error and hit by pitch. Then the Hogs tacked on the insurance runs in the ninth with the pair of home runs and four hits.
Parker Coil (1-0) replaced Gaeckle and got the win. He worked 2.0 innings allowing three hits, one run, striking out four and walking none. Aiden Jimenez pitched the final three innings having a perfect night. He retired all nine hitters he faced striking out six of them. Van Horn praised Jimenez.
"Yeah, and he’s been good," Van Horn said. "He’s been a strike thrower. He’s only one year, like 12 months, maybe 13 months, out of Tommy John surgery and he’s throwing the ball in the low-90s with sink and command. The command’s the thing and he’s throwing a cutter, his fastball’s kind of a heavy ball. Yeah, it was fun to watch him pitch and it was just… You’d have to think that really helped his confidence and I know us as coaches, it helps us to put him out there in tough situations. Tonight wasn’t super stressful, but he still had to get these guys out and they showed they can score quick and he did a great job."
Starter Riley Maddox (3-2) took the loss for Ole Miss. In 4.0 innings he allowed four hits, three runs, walked two and fanned a trio. In all, six Ole Miss pitchers allowed 12 runs on 15 hits including five home runs. Ole Miss was limited to the three runs on just four hits.
Arkansas and Ole Miss (15-3, 1-1) will play the rubber game on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Landon Beidelschies will take the mound for Arkansas.