The No. 4 Arkansas Razorbacks continue to push the “they just win” mantra, doing so again on Friday night in Auburn.
Arkansas stormed back from being down 5-0 to take game one of the series with No. 19 Auburn, 11-8 at Plainsman Park.
The Razorbacks fought back to cut Auburn’s lead to 5-4 in the 6th inning, before grabbing their first lead on a three-run home run by Kendall Diggs as part of a four-run 7th inning. Arkansas grabbed three more insurance runs in the 8th inning to put the Tigers away.
Auburn struck first in a game that was slow to warm up. The Tigers loaded the bases with Bobby Pierce at the plate. Pierce hit a ground ball to shortstop [autotag]Jalen Battles[/autotag], and with two outs, Battles put too much power into his throw to [autotag]Brady Slavens[/autotag] at first base, sending the baseball into the Auburn dugout. The costly error allowed two Auburn runs to score, giving them the 2-0 advantage in the 3rd inning.
After Arkansas went down in order on only five pitches from Mason Barnett in their half of the 4th inning, Auburn went on a tear by scoring three more runs in the inning to push their lead to 5-0.
Brooks Carlson led off the inning with a solo home run, then two of the next three batters would reach base on singles, allowing Auburn to use small ball to extend their lead. Blake Rambusch dropped a bunt down the first base line that was recovered by [autotag]Connor Noland[/autotag]. However, 1st base was left uncovered as Slavens also attempted to play the bunt, allowing Brody Moore to score from 3rd base. Cole Foster would close scoring in the inning on a single by Kason Howell.
After being startled by the early 5-0 advantage, Arkansas got on the board in the 5th inning thanks to a slow-rolling single to short stop by [autotag]Cayden Wallace[/autotag] that scored Battles, who reached base on a full-count walk to lead off the inning. Following a controversial call that determined Michael Turner caused interference on his pursuit of 2nd base, erasing a run, Slavens hit a sacrifice fly to score [autotag]Zach Gregory[/autotag], cutting the lead to 5-2.
The next three runs between Arkansas and Auburn came via the long ball. Moore hit Auburn’s second home run of the day, a solo bomb to the right center field to extend the Tiger lead to 6-2. Arkansas wanted to one-up Auburn in the top of the 6th inning, and did so with a two-run blast by Jace Bohrofen to cut the lead to 6-4.
The Razorbacks kept chipping away at Auburn, ultimately grabbing their first lead of the game in the 7th inning. [autotag]Robert Moore[/autotag] singled on a ground ball to the pitcher, with the throw to first resulting in an error which allowed Turner to score, trimming the lead to 6-5.
Slavens would reach base in the next at-bat on a single of his own, setting up [autotag]Kendall Diggs[/autotag] with an opportunity to keep the momentum going. Diggs did so, by nailing a three-run blast to right field. The home run would give Arkansas their first lead of the game, 8-6.
In what ended up being a much-needed insurance swing, Moore would smack a three-run blast over the left field monster to push the Razorbacks lead to 11-6 in the top of the 8th. The home run proved to be major, as Auburn scored two runs in the bottom half on a double by Foster, and a single by Pierce, trimming the Arkansas lead to 11-8.
Arkansas looks to take the series with Auburn on Saturday. First pitch is set for 4:30 p.m., and can be seen on SEC Network. Hagen Smith will battle Auburn’s Trace Bright on the mound.