By Otis Kirk
No. 2 Arkansas defeated No. 12 Vanderbilt 8-2 on Thursday night in SEC action in Nashville.
The Razorbacks took advantage of four errors by Vanderbilt and also drew eight walks from the four Commodores pitchers. Dave Van Horn was pleased to see the Hogs get the road win and praised both Hagen Smith and Will McEntire.
"Just a great job by our pitching staff," Van Horn said. "I thought Hagen did a tremendous job going through a tough lineup. They’re really good at home. They’ve been good at home all year. Even when we had a 7-0 lead we knew they’d make a run at us. They did a little bit. I thought Will came in and did a tremendous job. He threw a lot of strikes. He didn’t walk anyone. I think he ended up with six strikeouts.
"On the offensive end, man we took advantage of everything they gave us. They walked us. They made errors. We got a couple of big two-out hits and we just kept adding to the lead. So it was a good win."
Smith (8-1) pitched five innings allowing five hits, two runs, walked a pair and struck out seven to pick up the win. Former Bryant standout McEntire gained his second save of the season. He pitched four innings, allowed one hit and struck out six while holding Vandy scoreless.
Van Horn said the pitching went as planned and allowed them to save former Batesville righty Gage Wood for another game.
"The plan was to win the game," Van Horn said. "We had four innings to go. We didn’t feel like we needed to bring Gage in right there and we went with Will."
Smith threw 84 pitches in the win before giving way to McEntire. He talked about the pitch count following the game.
"I don’t really think about the pitch count when I’m on the mound," Smith said. "Just trying to execute each pitch and get some soft contact to the infield, honestly."
One of the offensive standouts was second baseman Peyton Holt who is filling in for the injured Peyton Stovall. Holt was 3 for 4 on Thursday night, knocked in a run and even drew a walk. Holt talked about getting his chance to play every day.
"I mean yeah, it does," Holt said. "I mean it sucks how it happened, prayers out to Stovall, hope everything goes good with his recovery. But I mean it’s my spot now, and I’ve just got to do everything I can to play my butt off and help the team win in any way I can, and just keep playing hard."
Van Horn also heaped some praise on Holt.
"He did a great job," Van Horn said. "I mean, offensively, three hits, scored a run. Saved a couple of runs with his glove. I don’t know, he just had a great game. It’s nice having somebody down there in the bottom third of the order starting rallies and also driving in runs."
First baseman Brady Slavens had two hits, including a home run in the first inning, and knocked in a pair of runs.
Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin saw his starting pitcher Patrick Reilly (3-3) struggle mightily in the 1.2 innings he worked. He only allowed two hits, but gave up five runs, one earned, walked six, only struck out one and hit a batter.
“Well, we just didn’t play well in any category,” Corbin said. “We didn’t get off to a good start and we just did ourselves in too many times and you can’t do that with a good team. We put guys too many guys on base.
“We pitched really well after that second inning, but we still didn’t play well enough to win the game.”
The four errors also was something that concerned Corbin.
“That is not us, trust me,” Corbing said. “We have got to flush that quick. We have just got to get into some kind of positive activity where they can start feeling better about themselves.
“They are young kids and they are pressing. I can see it, you can see it. That’s not us. They are human beings. They don’t want to play like that. That is uncharacteristic of how they played all year. That’s not representative of Vanderbilt and who they are.”
The two teams will return to the field Friday night at 7 p.m. on the SEC Network. Arkansas (39-13, 20-8) continues to lead the SEC in the race for the best overall record. Vanderbilt (35-17, 17-11) will try to even the series on Friday.