Category: Arkansas baseball

Arkansas Baseball walk off the Tigers in the 10th

Hudson White walks off the Tigers! The Hogs take the series and have a chance to sweep tomorrow.

The Hogs put on a show tonight!

Arkansas beat LSU, 4-3, in a defensive masterpiece.

Both teams made incredible defensive plays throughout the game. Pitching was superb from both bullpens, but the real story was fielding.

LSU’s first baseman, Jared Jones made huge plays late in the game.

In the bottom of the seventh, Jones rushed toward a Jared Sprague-Lott bunt and flipped it home with his glove to tag out Wehiwa Aloy. He also brought in a wild throw to first that ended the inning and might’ve saved the Tigers in the bottom of the ninth.

With Jones making plays like that at 6’4, 250 pounds, LSU head coach Jay Johnson might need to beat Brian Kelly off with a stick. But the Hogs had a playmaker of their own as well.

Peyton Stovall was outstanding at second base. Over and over again, he would make big-league plays, flipping ground balls to first in the nick of time. In the top of the sixth, Stovall fielded a chopper right in front of Michael Braswell III, tagged him, and got the double play at first.

Fortunately, Stovall wasn’t just excellent from the field, he was also the best at the plate. He went 3/5 with an RBI and two leadoff doubles.

But it was catcher Hudson White that took all the glory, however. Just like how Kendall Diggs’ 3-run homer stole the show on Thursday, White’s one-out double in the tenth drove Will Edmunson home to walk off the match. He was hilariously thanked by having his shirt ripped off and water dumped on his head.

The heavy-weight fight will continue tomorrow as the Hogs have a chance to sweep the No. 8 Tigers on Saturday.

Hogs pull away late in 7-4 win over LSU

Kendall Diggs 3-run homer was the difference as the Hogs pulled away late in a 7-4 win over LSU

Thanks to a big eighth inning, the Diamond Hogs pulled away late to take game one over No. 8 LSU.

All season long, the bats have been hot or cold, and Arkansas has relied heavily on its outstanding pitching staff to win games. Although his performance was immaculate—recording 10 strikeouts—LSU tested Hagen Smith for the first time this season.

The lefty had only given up one earned run since the opening series against James Madison, but the Tigers scored back-to-back homers to take the lead in the top of the fourth. Smith also gave up 5 hits, the most he’s allowed in a single game this season.

Still, LSU’s relative success against Smith would fall short. Arkansas looked like a different team at the plate. They forced LSU to burn through 7 pitchers, mainly because they were patient.

The Tigers’ bullpen had trouble finding the strike zone (but to be fair, it seemed to move around all night long), and Arkansas’ batters stayed patient. LSU walked Arkansas 11 times and three of the Razorbacks’ RBIs got on base via walks. And in the bottom of the seventh, LSU’s Cam Johnson walked another runner in with the bases loaded.

But the entire night collimated in the bottom of the eighth when Kendall Diggs hit a moon shoot to right-center field to all but seal the win for the Razorbacks.

Arkansas take its third SEC series tomorrow with a win tomorrow, but the Hogs will have a change of pace on Friday as Mason Molina is set to start in place of Brady Tygart. It’ll be his first game-two start with Arkansas, but the former Friday night guy for Texas Tech should have no problem adapting.

Former Diamond Hogs ace Isaiah Campbell makes first MLB Opening-Day roster

Campbell was a stud out of the bullpen for the Mariners last year, but this is his first season to begin the year in the Bigs.

Isaiah Campbell is an Opening-Day Major Leaguer.

The former Arkansas right-hander was named to the Boston Red Sox opening day roster Thursday as teams across the league prepared for the first games of the season.

Campbell will be pitching in his second season in the Big Leagues after cracking the Seattle Mariners’ club last year. He had a 2.83 earned-run average in 28 games for the Ms out of the bullpen. Campbell was trided to Boston in November for infielder Luis Urias.

A second-round pick of the Mariners in 2019, Campbell didn’t get to pitch professionally until 2021 at age 23. He quickly shot through Seattle’s system and jumped from Double-A Arkansas in the middle of last year to the big club, where he stuck for the season.

Campbell pitched for the Diamond Hogs for four seasons, although his second season with the Razorbacks was limited to just one game because of injury. He came into his own his final season in Fayetteville in 2019, striking out 122 batters and walking just 22 in 118 1/3 innings.

Boston opens its 2024 season Thursday night incidentally against those same Mariners.

Arkansas-LSU is college baseball’s best rivalry

Forget the Golden Boot. LSU owns it and always will. But in baseball? Yes, that’s the rivalry LSU-Arkansas rivalry and it’s glorious.

When the SEC expanded in football late last year and each team was provided two permanent opponents, a segment of the Arkansas football fan base clamored for LSU.

The segment was small, but many of the people within it had something in common: they were old.

Arkansas and LSU have played for the Golden Boot Trophy since 1996. The Tigers have claimed it 19 times. Arkansas, on the other hand, doesn’t even have 19 winning seasons 1996. The rivalry game mostly just came to fruition because of geographical border touching, though it bore fruit when a number of games in the late 1990s and early 2000s proved climactic, leading that aforementioned generation of people to hold tightly to game.

Arkansas-LSU is a rivalry, certainly. But it isn’t because of football.

The two teams are set to go for a three-game series inside Baum-Walker Stadium starting on Thursday with the Razorbacks the No. 1 team in the nation and LSU at No. 6. Both teams are considered national-championship contenders.

Which is nothing new. LSU has made nine College World Series and won two national championships since 2000. Arkansas has not captured a crown yet, but coach Dave Van Horn has taken the Diamond Hogs to Omaha, Nebraska, seven times since becoming Arkansas head coach in 2003. The teams are almost always next to each other in the SEC West pennant race and standings throughout the year.

LSU is a little more dinged entering the series this year. The Tigers have lost both their first two series in SEC play this year (Mississippi State and Florida), whereas Arkansas is sitting pretty atop the league with just one conference loss – Sunday’s finale against Auburn.

By no means will the winner of the series this weekend in Fayetteville seal up some sort of magical honor as the SEC’s best. The league is too deep, too tough to make such proclamations three weeks into conference play. It isn’t SEC basketball, after all. But for the purposes of the king of the mountain in the best baseball conference in the country, the Diamond Hogs-Tigers rivalry will provide some firepower.

Diamond Hogs change starting rotation on the mound vs. LSU

Actually, this might make Arkansas’ pitching even better.

During Wednesday’s press conference previewing this weekend’s series versus No. 8 LSU, coach Dave Van Horn told the media that there will be slight shake-up in the starting rotation.

Since the beginning of the season, the starting pitchers have played in the order of Hagen Smith on game one, then Brady Tygart, and finally Mason Molina. For the LSU series, Tygart and Molina will switch places.

Van Horn wants Tygart to have an extra day “to get right” after an uncharacteristic outing from the righty. Against Auburn, Tygart had trouble finding the zone, giving up 3 earned runs and a single-game career-high 5 walks in 3 2/3 innings.

Despite the performance, Tygart still has a 1.59 ERA on the season with 39 strikeouts in 28 1/3 innings pitched.

There will be no drop-off in production on Friday, though. Molina is arguably the best third-day starter in the country. Other than a slightly higher ERA, he has a similar stat line to the other starters, recording a 2.57 ERA, 12 hits, 8 walks, and 47 strikeouts in 28 innings pitched.

Arkansas’ series against the Tigers starts Thursday, March 28, at 6:00 pm.

Diamond Hogs roll Little Rock, get set for LSU

After having a 15-game winning streak snapped, No. 1 Arkansas took out the hammers against Little Rock.

Poor Little Rock. The Trojans didn’t even stand a chance.

No. 1 Arkansas jolted their sister school from the capital city on Tuesday from Baum-Walker Stadium, 11-0, in seven innings. The win returned the Diamond Hogs to the black side of the ledger after seeing a 15-game winning streak snapped Sunday against Auburn.

Wehiwa Aloy did a bulk of Arkansas’ damage against the school formerly known as UALR. The Diamond Hogs shortstop went 3 for 3 with a walk, a home run, four RBI and two runs. The jack came in the sixth, an inning in which Arkansas plated six runs to reach the run-rule threshold.

Peyton Stovall, Will Edmundson and Jack Wagner also homered for Arkansas.

On the hill, Ben Bybee made his season debut for the Razorbacks after losing the start of the year with mono. Bybee needed only work three innings where he allowed just one hit while striking out five. Arkansas had given him a two-run lead already heading into the second after a sacrifice fly and a bases-loaded bean-ball in the first.

The Diamond Hogs are now set for their toughest series of the season to this point. Arkansas will host No. 8 LSU for three games in Fayetteville on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Hagen Smith Earns his second SEC Pitcher of the Week honor

It’s surprising he hasn’t won it every week to be honest.

It’s honestly amazing how he hasn’t won this every week.

For the second time this season, Arkansas ace Hagen Smith earned Co-SEC Pitcher of the Week for his spectacular performance at No. 23 Auburn. The first of which he received after his monstrous, 17-strikeout performance against Oregon State.

Smith held the Tigers scoreless for six innings on Thursday, leading the Hogs to a 1-0 victory on the plains. In the process, he recorded his fourth game with double-digit strikeouts and his third with 12-plus.

If it wasn’t evident before then it surely is now; Smith has solidified himself as one of—if not the best pitchers in the country. The lefty has a 1.24 earned run average with 62 strikeouts on the season. However, if the James Madison game were removed, his ERA would go down to 0.32 for 60 Ks in 28 innings.

Smith is now tied for fourth on the all-time career strikeout list at Arkansas. His 12 strikeouts on Thursday brought his career total to 261.

Hoping to continue his dominant run, Smith is slated to start against No. 8 LSU on Thursday, March 28.

Hogs drop series final at Auburn

Arkansas failed to sweep Auburn, but an SEC series win is good enough.

I’ll take a 2-1 SEC  series all day, every day, and twice on Sundays.

Arkansas sweep attempt came up short Saturday afternoon. Auburn’s sixth-inning explosion put them over the top, winning 8-6.

Arkansas’ pitching staff showed some signs they were indeed human this weekend, giving up the most runs since their opening series against James Maddison.

Mason Molina did great, recording 4 strikeouts, 3 hits, 4 walks, and an earned run in 5 innings pitched. But on Saturday, the problem started when Molina left the game.

Cooper Dossett replaced Molina in the sixth and immediately gave up a leadoff home run to Auburn’s Mason Maners. Gabe Gaeckle replaced him after Dossett allowed a single on the following at-bat but immediately gave up a double and a walk to load the bases.

The Hogs gave up runs on another walk, a fielder’s choice, and finally, a bases-clearing homer by Copper McMurray for a six-run inning. To the pitching staff’s credit, McMurray was the Tiger’s best hitter, and the 3-RBI home run was the first and only hit of the series for the southpaw.

Regardless, a series win is a series win, and the Razorbacks are 2-0 in the SEC, which can’t be said for Arkansas’ next opponent.

No. 5 LSU will make the trip to Fayetteville this week for a battle of heavyweights.

The Tigers dropped their first series to Mississippi State and are currently 1-1 against Florida. They’ll be looking to make some noise against the No. 1 team in the country, especially if Florida can pull out the win today.

Diamond Hogs win back-and-forth battle to clinch series against Auburn

It was a long one… But what a ‘Helfrick’ of a game! Ryder Helfrick hits a go-ahead home run to push Arkansas past the Tigers.

It was a long one, but it was a great one!

For the first time this season, Arkansas had an off night on the bump. Auburn’s leadoff hitters reached base in 7 innings and nearly doubled Arkansas’ 5.64 H/9 average with 10.

Arkansas pitched by committee tonight, playing 6 different pitchers throughout the game. Brady Tygart had a hard time finding the zone against the Tigers, gave up a single-game career-high 5 walks with 4 strikeouts.

Kody Franks came in for relief and gave up 5 hits and a run in 2 innings. Gage Wood entered the match for 0.2 innings and loaded the bases with one out.

Luckily, the Razorbacks got out of the bottom of the seventh with a strikeout by Stone Hewlett and an outstanding effort by Ben McLaughlin to get a ground out at first.

Pitching isn’t solely to blame. Stolen bases and errors kept the Tigers in the game as much as the pitching did. But like all elite teams, Arkansas found ways to stay in the game while having arguably its worst performance of the season.

Arkansas hitters matched the Tigers run for run, including playing a little small-ball to tie the game in the top of the seventh.  Leadoff hitter Will Edmunson was hit by the ball on the first pitch he took.

Ty Wilmsmeyer singled on a bunt, allowing Edmunson to reach third on an error. Peyton Stovall then brought in the tying run with a sacrifice fly. After that, the real magic happened.

The game was delayed nearly 30 minutes when home plate umpire Jeff Head left after a foul ball hit him in the face in the bottom of the eighth. Auburn obviously took the break harder as the Razorbacks closed out the inning easily and moved on to the ninth.

On the second at-bat, Ryder Helfrick broke the tie with a dinger over Auburn’s big green wall. It was his first action at the plate since March 9 and his first hit since February 27.

Will McEntire got the call to ice the game and that was all she wrote. Hogs win 6-5.

With a win tomorrow, Arkansas can extend its winning streak to 15 games and sweep its second SEC series.

The Hogs grind out a win at Auburn, take game one

It was a good ol’ fashion pitcher’s duel to start thing off against the Tigers.

“Look at all those zeros.”

That’s what Thursday night’s color analyst Greg Olson said about the scoreboard going into the 9th inning. The first meeting between Auburn and Arkansas wasn’t a game for the offense-loving fans.

The only action of the day happened early in the game. In the top of the first, Wehiwa Aloy hit a single-run homer with two outs to put the Hogs on top. Catcher Hudson White was the best hitter to take the field tonight, going 3-4.

Besides Aloy and White, though, only Ben McLaughlin and Ty Wilmsmeyer recorded a hit for the Razorbacks, with one a piece.

Of course, Hagen Smith was the star of the show. The lefty has shut down every offense he’s faced, including arguably the best in the nation in Oregon State. Tonight, Smith had yet another double-digit strikeout performance.

However, things did get hairy in the sixth. Smith found himself in a bases-loaded situation after Auburn right-fielder Bobby Pierce reached first on a dropped fly ball and after he gave up a walk two batters later. But with two outs, every base was playable, and the Hogs easily got out of the inning with a ground out to first.

Will McEntire and Gabe Gaeckle combined for 5 more Ks in three innings to close the game.

Arkansas can take its second SEC series tomorrow with a win. Although, the hitters will need to step up to make that happen. The Diamond Hogs will need that production after this series anyway—especially at the top of the order—as they dive deeper into a punishing SEC Schedule. It might as well start against the Tigers.