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.
YOU CAN’T SCRIPT THIS pic.twitter.com/vMTqaCR2hP
— Arkansas Baseball (@RazorbackBSB) March 23, 2024
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.