FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 1 Arkansas appeared to be in trouble, but a three-run home run by shortstop Wehiwa Aloy in the bottom of the sixth provided Arkansas with the lift it needed to win 5-2 in front of 10,231 fans at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Ole Miss (18-13, 3-7) held a 2-1 lead entering the sixth. Starter Riley Maddox (2-3), who took the loss, walked Peyton Stovall and Ben McLaughlin to start the bottom of the sixth. That is when Aloy stepped up and blasted a home run giving the Hogs a 4-2 lead.
Ole Miss went to the bullpen and brought in Josh Mallitz. He retired Kendall Diggs, but then Jared Sprague-Lott hit a solo shot over the fence to give Arkansas breathing room, Dave Van Horn was glad the Hogs could escape with the win and felt the third time through the order was huge.
"I mean, we told them exactly what they were going to get," Van Horn said. "Right-handers were going to get sink, in on the hands and you’ve got to try to pull the guy … for the most part. They’ve got to pull his fastball, and obviously the breaking ball you’ve got to shoot it the other way if you can. So that’s what made, in my opinion, Aloy’s swing, hitting that fastball the other way into the net. … You know he tried to sneak one by him over there. I don’t know where it was — it might have been down the middle — but his approach was great. And obviously that was the big swing of the game. He had a big night for us.
"But seeing him three times, it made a big difference. He probably started to get a little bit tired as well. The ball probably wasn’t sinking quite as much. But I mean he got us out pretty quick there for a while. He didn’t throw very many pitches and it looked like he was going to give them seven or eight innings if we didn’t do something. And we finally got to him a little bit."
Aloy was 2-4 on the night talked about his approach on the pitch he got from Maddox fof the home run.
“My approach was just to stiff the middle more because prior to that, I was pulling off the ball and everything was going to left field," Aloy said. "Staying up the middle pretty much helped me get through that ball.”
Arkansas (25-3, 9-1) got another good pitching performance from Hagen Smith (6-0). He worked six innings, allowing four hits, two runs, walked four and struck out 11 while hitting one batter.
"Just really for both teams a well-played game," Van Horn said. "Pretty well pitched. The key to the game to me — well, there were two keys — first off we got out of the third inning with them only scoring two runs. You know they get a chopper, infield hit, base hit, had some things going their way. They hit a deep fly ball.
"But I just felt like when Hagen came out in the sixth and we were down a run, and he got through the sixth. He … I think it really motivated our team. It was just a 15-, 16-pitch inning and we came in and we got two walks and a home run and we had the lead. It was just big. It’s like he saved our bullpen if we didn’t come back and win but he just did a tremendous job fighting. Fighting through the night. I thought Ole Miss hitters, they fought him and they did a good job. Hagen didn’t have his best stuff but he still went 6 innings and only gave up 2 runs. I just saw he struck out 11. The four walks hasn’t kind of really happened this year. So that’s where the stuff, the command wasn’t where it’s been, but he still had a quality outing, gave us a chance, and we got a couple of big hits. So a good win for us."
Ole Miss got its two runs in the top of the third. Luke Hall and Andrew Fischer both singled against Smith. Ethan Lege then singled to load the bases. Smith walked a run in Jackson Ross getting on and then Ethan Groff grounded out allowing Fischer to score for a 2-0 lead.
Arkansas got its first run in the bottom of the fourth when Aloy singled with one out. Diggs then walked. Aloy and Diggs advanced on a wild pitch. Aloy scored on Sprague-Lott's ground out.
The two teams will play again Friday night with the first pitch set for 6:30. It will pit Mason Molina (3-0, 3.00) against Lian Doyle (2-1, 6.04), both lefties. Friday's game and Saturday's 2 p.m. game can both be seen on the SEC Network+.