FAYETTEVILLE -- It wasn't easy, but No. 3 Arkansas opened the 2024 baseball season with a 6-4 win over James Madison with strong bullpen performances by Bryant's Will McEntire and Batesville's Gage Wood.
Lefty All-America Hagen Smith got the start for Arkansas, but struggled in his only inning to pitch. He only allowed one hit, a 3-run home run to Fenwick Trimble, but threw 42 pitches. He walked two and hit a batter as well. Will McEntire replaced Smith and worked 5.2 innings, allowing three hits, allowing one run and striking out six to get the win in a cold Baum-Walker Stadium. Dave Van Horn was pleased to get out of the game with a win and praised McEntire.
"I think both teams played extremely well for as cold as it was down there, windy," Van Horn said. "Both teams fielded the ball pretty well, handled it. Got to give the pitchers credit on both sides for throwing a lot of strikes. It’s difficult to control the ball when you’re not feeling it real good. So I feel really good about the way our offense responded to what went on in the top of the first. Came back and punched in a couple, then a couple more in the second and third, got the lead and never lost it.
"The game settled down a lot because of Will McEntire. He just did a tremendous job of coming in out of the pen and just letting us climb back in the game and get the lead. After that we didn’t hit as much. We hit a few balls hards but we just didn’t get that big hit."
Van Horn talked about what he felt caused Smith to struggle so much in his lone inning of work.
"I don’t know," Van Horn said. "I don’t think it was first-game jitters. I’m sure the cold affected him a little bit. The game’s funny. It’s so fragile. We had two on. First batter leads off the game, has a great at-bat. Fouls off some pitches and he ended up walking him. Next guy he has 0-2 and he hits him. Third hitter, their best hitter, foul tips one. It goes into the glove, starting to come out of the glove, he reaches for it with his hand as it’s going down to the ground, low, doesn’t get it and the ball hits the dirt. Then the ball blows out of the park. It’s just a routine fly ball. We’re telling the center fielder to throw the ball to second base on the tag. Next thing you know it blows out of the park. Yeah, he hits a guy 0-2, a foul tip jumps out of the glove and all of a sudden you’re down 3-0. He just - you know - I don’t know. He’ll be a lot better next week."
Transfer Jared Sprague-Lott had two hits including a home run and knocked in two runs for the Hogs in his first game. He got the start at third base. His home run led off the bottom of the second to tie the game at 3. Then hit a single in the bottom of the third allowing both Jack Wagner and Peyton Holt to score.
"Jared got a big hit with two outs that scored one and then we had a run-down situation that gave us that sixth run," Van Horn said. "A lot of good things, a lot of things we didn’t do very well. But it was a good game. They’ve got a good team. They’re solid. Very, very solid. We knew what we were getting into: An experienced pitching staff for the most part and an experienced lineup. The three-hole hitter had a great day. He’s a good hitter."
Catcher Hudson White also hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second that put the Hogs up 4-3. In the bottom of the first the Hogs pulled within one run. Kendall Diggs doubled to left field with one out. Wehiwa Aloy walked. Ben McLaughlin then singled to plate Diggs. Aloy scored on a single by Holt.
The only run allowed by McEntire came in the top of the sixth. Trimble led off with a double to left field. He moved to third on a ground out and then scored on another grounder. McEntire talked about his performance afterward.
"Felt like I did a pretty good job of keeping it down today," McEntire said. "Until then, I felt like I struggled a little a little bit. I’ve got to give credit to Huddy. We had a good gameplan just mixing pretty well and hitting spots."
Wood got the save. He worked 2.1 innings allowed one hit and fanned four. Van Horn took notice of how Wood pitched.
"Well, you know he’s got that new pitch, a little cutter," Van Horn said. "He likes to throw it. It’s hard. It moves. His fastball, he was spotting it up pretty good. He’s got some carry on it. I don’t know what the board was reading, 93-94, I don’t know. But it looks harder than that. It does from the side, so I think in the box it does as well. He can throw it harder than that. I really liked the way he threw the ball around the plate. Even his misses were right there.
"The umpire established the zone. It was going to be the top of the zone you’re getting it, the bottom of the zone you didn’t get it or he had to feel really good about it. I think we only had one pitch down at the bottom of the zone that we felt like it was called strike. He was really consistent. I thought he did a good job, because guys knew what they had to do. Gage was all around that zone when he wasn’t throwing a strike."
Diggs and Sprague-Lott each got two hits to lead the Hogs attack at the plate. They got exactly half of the eight hits for Arkansas. Sprague-Lott talked about his performance after transferring in from Richmond. He was expected to back up Holt at third, but when Peyton Stovall got hurt he was inserted into the lineup.
"It was definitely a ton of fun to get out there with the rest of the guys," Sprague-Lott said. "The last two weeks, the coaching staff and all my teammates have done a lot to prepare me. It was just fun to be out there."
Sprague-Lott said the team was calm and not overly concerned when they trailed 3-0 after three hitters in the top of the first.
“After we went down 3-0, we stayed pretty calm and we just wanted to chip away one batter at a time and just do whatever we could to get ahead," Sprague-Lott said. "The home run was just a great moment. A lot of fun rounding the bases and getting back to the dugout with the rest of the guys.”
The two teams will play the second contest of the four-game series on Saturday with the first pitch set for 2 p.m. Brady Tygart will go for Arkansas. Lefty Max Kuhle will go for James Madison. The game can be streamed on the SEC Network+.
Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action
