Ole Miss jumped on Arkansas starter Zach Root with Hayden Federico hitting his second pitch well out of the park for a 1-0 lead that Ole Miss never surrendered. They added another run in the bottom of the first. Ole Miss scored two more in the second, one in the third, two in the fourth and fifth and then one in the sixth. Dave Van Horn had moved Root to Friday starter this week talked about why his lefty struggled.
"Well, really locating," Van Horn said. "He was pitching from behind a lot and it just was a tough situation. Wind blowing out hard, behind in the count. Give credit to Ole Miss's hitters. They fouled off a lot of pitches and laid off a lot of borderline pitches. Just not the command that he's had."
Root (2-1) took the loss. He worked 3.0 innings allowing 10 hits, seven runs, walked two and struck out three throwing 74 pitches. The Razorbacks used three pitchers out of the bullpen. Dylan Carter, Tate McGuire and Ben Bybee pitched. Bybee was the only pitcher to not allow any runs. He pitched 2.0 innings, allowed no hits, struck out two and walked one. Van Horn was asked everything considered was he pleased with the bullpen?
"Yeah, they slowed it down, especially Bybee," Van Horn said. "I thought he threw really well and got our first leadoff man out in the seventh. Got our first zero there and then he got another one in the eighth so I thought the bullpen did a good job."
Brent Iredale had an error and an outfielder misplayed a ball that allowed two runs to score, but Van Horn wasn't too disappointed in the defense.
"Well, I think just the one play," Van Horn said. "Because that ball is going to drop and if it had been a dive where, it hits your glove. But it was 3-4 feet in front of him. With two outs and a runner scores from first. That was really the play that we shouldn't have had and then the ball that Iredale just took it out of his glove. He was trying to turn a double play on a ball that wasn't hit very hard and he dropped the ball. I wasn't really disappointed our outfield play. We had our center fielder crashed into the wall full speed just about. He didn't catch the ball, but it was a really good effort."
Ole Miss starter Hunter Elliott (4-0) worked 5.0 innings to get the win. He allowed five hits, two runs, fanned eight and walked one. He had a wild pitch and hit one batter among his 93 pitches. Ole Miss Coach Mike Bianco praised Elliott.
“He is a great competitor,” Bianco said. “It was a tough day to pitch today. A tough day went he wind really blowing out hard - 15 to 20 miles an hour - but he hung in there.
“He gave up a couple of runs early, not a lot of hard hit balls, but we didn’t get a lot of hard hit balls early. I think offenses got some breaks early, but we continue to add on. He was terrific."Van Horn talked about the Razorbacks getting Elliott's pitch count up but never getting the big hit off him."That’s what he does," Van Horn said. "We talked about it yesterday as a team, in that you’ve got to find a way to get the hit against him. We got his count up. Fouled off a lot of pitches. Took a lot of pitches. I mean, we had him up to like, he was throwing at least 20 pitches an inning, for the most part. We just, it was one run. One run, instead of two and three, and credit to him. He got out of some jams and we never got that big hit, so to speak."
Arkansas was led at the plate by Kuhio Aloy who had three hits. Charles Davalan and Logan Maxwell each hit home runs for Arkansas. Maxwell knocked in two runs and Davalan one. Ryder Helfrick and Cam Kozeal each had one RBI and a hit each.
Due to threatening weather the Saturday schedule isn't set yet.
"Well, I’m supposed to get a call probably in the next hour and they’re going to set a time," Van Horn said. "It doesn’t look like we’re going to try to play at regular time. It’s supposed to rain, unless it’s changed in the last four, five hours we’ve been at the field. I think it’s supposed to rain all day and maybe lighten up at six or seven o’clock. I should know pretty soon and then I’ll get it to Oliver (Grigg) and then we’ll go from there. And if we don’t play, we’ll play two sevens on Sunday."