By Otis Kirk
FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas took a 6-4 win over Ole Miss on Saturday in Oxford to capture the series winning twice in three games.
Arkansas (25-6, 8-4) won a series in Oxford for the second time in a row which hasn't happened often. Dave Van Horn was glad his team was able to escape with the win on Saturday following Friday's double-header.
"This is a tough place to play, tough place to win," Van Horn said. "We’re super excited about it honestly. We get to fly home most of the time but this was the only one, and rightly so, that’s a bus trip. It’s about five and a half hours, so it’s gonna make the ride home a lot better for everybody. Everybody involved with the program.
"You know baseball’s a funny game, man. It’ll hurt you. It’ll humble you. It’ll make you happy. It’s just a lot of emotions. They’re struggling. We really just fought them. I’m sure they felt like over in their dugout that this was going to be their weekend to turn it all around and they probably will turn it around. I’m just glad we got our couple of wins at a minimum and we’re getting out of here."
Former Bryant standout Will McEntire got the start and battled for 4.2 innings. He left after just throwing 60 pitches, allowing five hits, striking out two and walking a pair. Both his runs he surrendered were earned. Van Horn explained why the short leash for McEntire.
"Yeah, great job by our guys hanging in there today," Van Horn said. "McEntire, he was filling sick all week, had the flu. He was diagnosed with the flu last Sunday. Gave him an extra day’s rest. Gave us four-plus innings and he was done. I almost took him out a hitter or two earlier. He fought as long as he could. Really proud of him."
Dylan Carter came in and pitched 1.1 innings giving up a home run to Jacob Gonzalez, the first hitter he faced that tied the game at 3 in the bottom of the fifth. But then Carter settled in and got his fifth win in as many decisions. However, it was former Batesville right-hander Gage Wood that came through big for the Hogs. Wood, who earned his second save, worked 3.0 innings, allowing three hits, one run, walked one and fanned four while facing 13 hitters.
"Then obviously just the way it all went down with our guys continuing to punch in runs, even when they tied it," Van Horn said. "It didn’t deflate us. We just knew that we had four innings to go and we needed to find a way to win the game. It was just big that we kept scoring. That run we scored in the eighth I felt was huge. Doubled our lead, so instead of one it was two. We were hoping that Gage could take us to the house so to speak and he did it. Two great plays in the outfield in the ninth helped out, but Gage just kept getting after it and throwing strikes, and being able to throw that off-speed pitch, even behind in the count, was big."
The two great plays in the outfield that Van Horn talked about in the ninth inning was a diving catch in left by Jared Wegner for the first out. Then Tavian Josenberger ran down a ball on the warning track for the second out. Wood then struck out Ole Miss' Peyton Chatagnier to end the game. Wood was pleased with both the plays in the outfield.
"They really came to play today," Wood said. "I wouldn’t have done it without them, honestly. That play Wegner made was great and then Bohrofen back at the wall and Josenberger back at the wall as well. Those guys (Ole Miss) weren’t backing down easy. They put up a fight. But our defense they came to play and that’s a big reason we ended up getting this series win."
Wood also talked about pitching the final three innings to earn the save.
"Yeah, it was great," Wood said. "It’s something I’ve been working for a long time. And my name got called and I was ready to step up and do my job. But, yeah, I knew once we got those runs that I could keep them away and I could do my job and get us the win right there and not let them score. And yeah, I knew I could do it."
Arkansas took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Caleb Cali led off the inning with a solo shot over the fence in center field. Ole Miss tied it in the bottom of the fourth.
In the top of the fifth, Cali walked to begin the inning. He went to third base when John Bolton reached on an error with one out. Cali then scored on a wild pitch. Bolton advanced to second and then scored on a single to center by Peyton Stovall.
After Ole Miss tied the game at 3, it was Cali again who played hero. He singled to start the top of the seventh. He advanced to second on a wild pitch then scored on a two-out single by Josenberger. Then Stovall singled to right field and TJ McCants booted the ball allowing Josensberger to score from first for a 5-3 lead.
Ole Miss then cut the lead to one, 5-4, in the bottom of the seventh. But in the top of the eighth, Jace Bohrofen doubled to left field to start the inning. He then immediately scored on a Kendall Diggs single. Stovall, Cali and Bohrofen each had two hits to lead the Arkansas attack.
Friday, April 7, Game 1, Arkansas 11 - Ole Miss 2. Game 2, Ole Miss 7 - Arkansas 4
The Hogs and Ole Miss played two on Friday since Thursday night's game was postponed due to the weather.
In the opening game, Hunter Hollan bounced back from a bad performance at LSU the previous Friday with a very nice game. In addition, Brady Slavens had a grand slam. Van Horn talked about the two games on Friday.
"Yeah, just started out really well," Van Horn said. "I thought we played extremely well the first game. Pitched outstanding. Got out of a jam or two. But got a lot of big hits and created some innings through walks and driving pitch counts up, different things that really helped us the first ball game.
"The second game didn’t go great. Had a chance to really, really break it open in the second and didn’t take advantage of it. We scored one run. I think that probably ended up costing us the ball game."
Van Horn also talked about Slavens' big grand slam when he was down in the count.
"Yeah, that was a big swing on an 0-2 count," Van Horn said. "Fastball kind of up and in, just short, quick to the ball and hit it out of the park. Just a really good swing. He had a couple of infield hits in the second game, just chopped it over the pitcher’s head. Lot of confidence there. Battled a little bit. It was really good to see him swing the bat well and get some big hits for us."
He also was pleased to see Hollan bounce back with a solid performance.
"He was outstanding," Van Horn said. "He gave us a chance to get in the dugout pretty quick, a bunch. We scored a couple here a couple there and built up a lead and got some big hits. For the most part he went out there and he mixed. He pitched backwards a lot at times, got the jumping at the ball and hit some fly balls. We turned a double play or two. Really good outing."
With McEntire ill, Hagen Smith started the nightcap. He has been working out of the bullpen recently. He pitched five innings, allowed four hits, four runs, walked two and struck out seven. He took the loss after winning his first five decisions.
Up Next
Arkansas will be at home on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon to host the Little Rock Trojans (17-11). The Tuesday game will begin at 6:30 p.m. and then at 4 on Wednesday. Both games will be on the SEC Network+.