Kjerstad’s hit gives Hogs sweep
FAYETTEVILLE — Jake Reindl’s best outing of the season, clutch two-out hits from Eric Cole and Heston Kjerstad and an Auburn home run that wasn’t a home run played the biggest roles in the No. 8 Arkansas Razorbacks’ 5-4 victory over No. 15 Auburn on Sunday.
Reindl (2-1) struck out a career-high nine in seven innings of relief and retired the final 18 batters and Kjerstad drove home Carson Shaddy with a game-winning two-out single in the ninth inning as the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (24-9, 8-4 SEC) swept Auburn, won its fifth consecutive game and took sole possession of first in the SEC West before a crowd of 3,395 at Baum Stadium.
“It’s nice to be there, but there’s a lot of schedule left,” said Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn, who pointed out how the Hogs bounced back from series-ending defeats at No. 2 Florida and No. 4 Ole Miss the last two weekends.
Arkansas, which swept No. 4 Kentucky in its opening series at Baum, has won its first six SEC home games for the first time.
The Razorbacks overcame a 4-0 deficit against the Tigers (23-10, 4-8 SEC) that should have been a five-run lead.
Auburn, backing a quality start from freshman Tanner Burns, chased starter Isaiah Campbell with a three-run second inning, and Reindl, who entered the game with a 5.62 ERA, took over in the third. He walked catcher Brett Wright to open the inning and after striking out Brendan Venter, Auburn’s Jay Estes launched a deep line drive to left field.
Kjerstad got to the warning track, timed his leap and got his glove up to the wall as the ball descended. After Kjerstad landed, there was some confusion on the field as to whether or not he made the catch.
The confusion extended to the base paths for a moment, during which Estes passed his teammate Wright, who had neared second base but charged back toward first. After the ball was determined to have gone over the wall, the
umpires huddled and called Estes out, though Wright was allowed to score. Auburn Coach Butch Thompson argued the ruling but didn’t win his beef.
“I wish the umpire could have made a call,” Thompson said. “It was hard to tell, from the dugout especially, the only perspective that I have, and I couldn’t tell if it was a home run or if it was caught.
“I think our runner just reacted, not knowing because it was a delayed call from the umpire. By the time he had worked back a little bit, our batted runner, the hitter, had passed him.”
Estes was denied his first home run of the season.
Said Van Horn, “I thought Heston was going to catch it or it was going to hit the wall. [Estes] was moving really good and the first runner, I really don’t know what happened there.”
Reindl had not seen the runners cross paths, but the second baseman Shaddy had.
“That was weird,” Reindl said. “I have no idea what happened there. Carson had to tell me what was going on.”
Reindl’s outing was the longest of his career and easily his best of the season, as his only hit allowed was the Estes non-homer that was ruled a single.
“It felt good to finally get back in the swing of things and get to being who I was last year and who everybody expected me to be,” Reindl said.
Reindl’s fastball topped out around 92 or 93 mph and he had a good change-up and his best curveball of the year.
“He was throwing his curveball when he wanted to for a strike, both sides of the plate. Throwing his changeup, pitching backwards,” Van Horn said. “He got ahead of hitters where he could just go to work on them.
“We knew it was in there and knew it was coming. It was a great time for it to show up.”
With Reindl not allowing a run for the final six innings, the Razorbacks worked their way back in contention, starting with a rally in the fourth to cut their deficit in half.
Cole led off with a rare infield double on a hit up the middle that struck the second base bag and ricocheted behind shortstop Luke Jarvis. Casey Martin scored Cole with a hit down the left field line and Martin beat the throw to second for a double.
Burns rallied to strike out Kjerstad and Luke Bonfield in succession. Dominic Fletcher hit a chopper on the left side and beat the throw, and when first baseman Brendan Venter couldn’t make the scoop on third baseman Josh Anthony’s throw, Martin scored on a head-first slide into home.
Auburn maintained its 4-2 lead behind Burns, who struck out seven in his final three innings, until Thompson pulled him for Calvin Coker in the seventh.
After retiring Fletcher on a line out, Grant Koch reached on a throwing error by the shortstop Jarvis. Jared Gates bounced one through the right side on a 1-2 pitch and was replaced by pinch runner Jordan McFarland.
Coker struck out Shaddy, then walked Jax Biggers to load the bases after throwing a wild pitch to move up the runners. Cole stroked Coker’s first pitch over shortstop for a two-run single to make it 4-4.
“I knew I was going to get something out away from me, not over the plate, so I pretty much had to think from second base over is the only place I can hit the ball,” Cole said. “He gave me a low fastball and I just kind of poked it over the
shortstop and thankfully it got over his head.”
Kjerstad struck out against lefty Andrew Mitchell moments later with the bases loaded, but he’d get another chance in the ninth.
Shaddy led off the ninth against ace reliever Cody Greenhill (1-1) by drawing a walk after falling behind 0-2. Biggers sacrificed him to second with a bunt and the Tigers elected to walk Cole to set up force plays.
Greenhill struck out pinch hitter Evan Lee to bring up Kjerstad, who had been 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.
“I was just trying to hit something hard, like my usual routine, and was just trying to get in that winning run to finish off the sweep,” said Kjerstad, who raked a 2-1 low fastball into center field.
Shaddy chugged around third and scored easily as Kjerstad’s ball took several bounces and the center fielder Estes did not make a clean scoop.
Kjerstad’s teammates tracked him down in short right field, mobbed him with lots of sprays of cold water from cups and gave him a Gatorade bath.
“Honestly, the water wasn’t that cold because my adrenaline was pumping,” Kjerstad said. “It was fun for all of us.”