No. 2 Arkansas jumped on No. 14 Vanderbilt Friday night for a 9-0 victory in Nashville behind the hitting of Cam Kozeal and pitching of Zach Root.

Kozeal, who transferred to Arkansas from Vandy in the offseason, ended up with three hits, two home runs and knocked in five runs. Root worked 7.2 innings allowing just three hits, walking a trio and striking out seven with no runs. Dave Van Horn was happy with his team's performance afterward.

"Just a great job by our team tonight, bouncing back after that tough ballgame on Tuesday," Van Horn said. "Played really well. Some big hits. Zach Root pitched extremely well. Just filled up the zone, mixed four pitches and still throwing the ball in the mid-90s in hit last inning. In the eighth inning, he was still 94, 95 when he wanted to. Yeah, just a really good win on the road in a tough place."

As far as Kozeal, Van Horn was asked if he had sensed any extra motivation for his first baseman returning to Vandy?

"Well, not really," Van Horn said. "I mean, I’m sure there was, but he didn’t show it. I was in the hitter’s meeting today and he didn’t act any different than he normally does. At the field, he seemed normal. We talked to him about it in the last day or two just to try to keep his emotions in tact and play the game. He did a great job doing that I feel like."

The biggest jam of the night for the Razorbacks came in the bottom of the eighth when Vandy loaded the bases with two outs on a double and two walks. At that point, with the Razorbacks leading 6-0, Van Horn went to the bullpen to bring in Aiden Jiminez. He immediately retired the only Vandy hitter he faced getting a fly out to Charles Davalan in left field.

"Yeah, he threw first pitch fastball," Van Horn said. "They were taking it looked like. And then second pitch, he threw his best pitch. It was kind of a cutter down, really nice. Third pitch, we wanted it to be the same type pitch, but he left it up and they lined out. Then we went in and scored I think three more runs, so we just thought, ‘Hey, we might need him again tomorrow or Sunday.’"

The Razorbacks did add three runs in the top of the ninth to set the final margin of victory. At that point Van Horn opted to bring in Dylan Carter for the ninth. Carter faced four hitters, walked one and struck out another.

"Brought in Carter and Carter threw great," Van Horn said. "I mean, he was throwing 96, 97 mph, dotting it up pretty good. Threw a hard slider and only threw 13 pitches I think, so we could bring him back, as well."

Root (4-1) pitched a complete game (seven inning run rule) against South Carolina last week. So this was the second consecutive outstanding outing for him since the Ole Miss series where it didn't go well for him. Van Horn talked about Root's improvement.

"Well, he had his breaking ball again," Van Horn said. "He had all his pitches tonight. Last week he had a breaking ball. Ole Miss he didn’t have a breaking ball. Everything was up. Just had a bad outing. It happens every now and then. But just doing what he does — four-pitch mix and was ahead a lot. Even when he got behind, you know, kind of caught back up and made them swing the bat. He wasn’t trying to just strike everybody out. Just let his defense work and they did a great job for him. Just doing what he does. He pitches."

The game was scoreless until the top of the third when Ryder Helfrick led off the inning with a triple. He scored on a ground out by Nolan Souza. Then in the top of the fourth, Logan Maxwell hit a solo home run. Brent Iredale walked and Kozeal hit his first home run of the night for a 4-0 lead. Van Horn talked about his team getting to Vandy starter J.D. Thompson (2-2).

"Well, the first and second inning he just came at them with fastballs, got ahead and got them out," Van Horn said. "The third inning, I think, did we get a leadoff home run, I don’t know, with two strikes. Then it was just hitter after hitter was just fouling off pitches and working the count. We didn’t score again in the third, but we definitely got his pitch count up and then in the fourth inning, it was just a lot of the same. We got a couple big hits, home run and really got his pitch count up after four. Just doing what our offense has pretty much done most of the season, which is fight you and if you get them out, they get a little piece of you, so to speak. They wear you down."

Thompson gave Vandy 6.0 innings, allowing five hits, five runs, walking two and striking out six. Van Horn has seen his team having a tough time to win in Nashville was pleased with an offense that put up nine runs on the night.

"I don’t know," Van Horn said. "It feels like nine to me. You know, we got some big hits and we made some nice plays in the field. The game might’ve been a little closer than 9-0, actually, so no I’m not going to make anything out of it. We just did a great job."

Arkansas (24-3, 6-1) had a large group of fans at the park. Van Horn was appreciative of the following.

"I mean, we probably had about as many fans as they did," Van Horn said. "It was hard to tell. I don’t look up there a whole lot, but I know that we had a lot of red. A lot of them were there early, too. They watched us take batting practice. Some down the first base line and then in the outfield both sides. It was kind of neat to see."

Kozeal hit his second home run of the night in the top of the sixth for a 5-0 lead. Maxwell delivered a one-out double in the top of the eighth. He eventually scored when the Vandy pitched walked him in with the bases loaded.

The two teams will play on Saturday with the first pitch set for 2 p.m. The final game of the series will be Sunday at 1 p.m.