The No. 4 Arkansas Razorbacks won their second consecutive conference series to open league play on Sunday, defeating Missouri, 6-4, winning two of the three-game series to move to 18-4, 5-1 in SEC play.
The win keeps Arkansas in the driver’s seat of the SEC West, as they hold on to a two-game lead over Auburn, Texas A&M, LSU, and Mississippi State through two SEC series weekends. Sunday’s win over Missouri holds sentimental value for Razorback fans, as the leader of their program grabbed his 300th SEC win.
Since Dave Van Horn took over his alma mater’s baseball program in 2003, the Razorbacks have won 768 games, have appeared in the College World Series six times, and have held the title of conference champions three times. Arkansas has also made the postseason in all but one season under the direction of Van Horn.
đ @VanHornHogs đ
Congrats on 300 SEC wins, Coach! pic.twitter.com/NIOSNRZDIP
— Arkansas Baseball (@RazorbackBSB) March 27, 2022
Arkansas needed to come from behind to grab the series win over the Tigers. Missouri got on the board first on a two-run home run by Luke Mann in the 2nd inning to jump out to a 2-0 lead. The Razorbacks tied the game at 2-2 in the 4th inning thanks to a bases-loaded single by Jalen Battles to score Chris Lanzilli, and a bases-loaded walk to Zack Gregory.
Arkansas placed the dagger in Missouri in the top of the 7th inning, when they pulled away by scoring four runs in the inning, taking advantage of two Missouri errors. After a leadoff walk to Cayden Wallace and Peyton Stovall reaching base on a throwing error by Missouri’s Luke Mann, Michael Turner gave the Razorbacks the lead on a single to score Wallace. The second error of the inning would be a balk by the Tigers’ Austin Troesser that scored Stovall, pushing Arkansas ahead, 4-2.
Braydon Webb delivered the final blow with two outs in the inning by doubling down the third base line to score Robert Moore and Michael Turner to give Arkansas the 6-2 lead.
The Tigers would grab two more runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to cut into the Arkansas lead, 6-4, on a Tre Morris RBI single and a fielder’s choice that allowed Carlos Pena to score.
Seven Razorbacks grabbed a hit in the contest, with Michael Turner grabbing two hits to lead the team. On the mound, Jaxon Wiggins had another solid outing by allowing four hits and striking out eight batters over 7.1 innings of work, grabbing his 4th win of the season.
After another solid outing on Sunday, Wiggins says that he is feeling great about his recent performances, and believes in his team ahead of their next series at Mississippi State.
“For me personally, I have all the confidence in the world,” Wiggins said on the SEC Network broadcast following Arkansas’ win. “As for the team, I have confidence in them, and I’m sure that they have confidence.”
The Razorbacks will host a two-game midweek set with Little Rock before hosting the defending national champion Mississippi State Bulldogs for a three-game weekend series beginning Friday night at Baum-Walker Stadium.
[listicle id=7324]