Walking off a winner at Baum
Kjerstad’s two-run home run gives Hogs 5-3 victory over Jaguars.
FAYETTEVILLE — An announced crowd of 8,463 received a thrill Sunday from a rare occurrence at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Arkansas right fielder Heston Kjerstad blasted a game-winning two-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Razorbacks a 5-3 victory over South Alabama. Arkansas (9-5) won the weekend series after losing the opening game Friday.
Kjerstad hit Arkansas’ first home run to end a game since James McCann’s beat LSU on April 9, 2011, in Fayetteville. It was the junior’s third career game-winning hit. He also had singles to beat Auburn in 2018 and Eastern Illinois last year.
“I’ve had a few walk-off hits, singles or whatever, but I’ve never hit a ball out to end the game,” said Kjerstad, who went 2 for 3 and extended his hit streak to 15 games. “That stuff I’ve always thought about as a kid when I’d be in the backyard with my brothers or siblings. You know, bottom of the ninth, you’re the winning run and you hit a home run and it’s a
walk-off. It’s kind of surreal to be in that situation and just a lot of fun to be out there with the guys and celebrate that.”
Kjerstad came to the plate thanks to Christian Franklin, whose two-out single in the ninth was the Razorbacks’ first hit since the third inning. Franklin, who also hit a home run and tripled, had three of Arkansas’ six hits Sunday, a day after the Razorbacks recorded a season-high 18 against the Jaguars (8-9).
“Franklin has been our hottest hitter probably all weekend, and I was just hoping he could get on base to give Heston a chance,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said.
Kjerstad’s home run was clocked at 104 mph off his bat and traveled 353 feet, just clearing the fence in right-center field. He hit the ball into the teeth of a strong wind that blew in from right field for the majority of the weekend and a breeze that Van Horn said probably cost Arkansas “six or seven home runs” during the series.
“That was a big-time swing,” Van Horn said. “Without the wind, that ball shoots way out of the park down the line.”
The home run came on a fastball low and inside from South Alabama right hander Noah Martin (0-1).
“He’s the best hitter in the [SEC], but we had a 55 percent chance of getting him out,” South Alabama Coach Mark Calvi said. “We just left one over the middle, and that is why the kid is going to be a big-leaguer. There is no doubt about that and he didn’t miss it.”
Arkansas came from behind to win for the second day in a row. South Alabama went ahead 1-0 in the first inning on an RBI single by Reid Powers, and 3-1 in the third on on Kaleb DeLaTorre’s RBI triple and Dakota Dailey’s run-scoring ground out.
All three runs came against Arkansas starter Kole Ramage, who allowed seven hits in three innings. But Ramage also made some key pitches. South Alabama’s Andrew Bates grounded out to strand the bases loaded in the first inning, and Ramage got Powers to hit into a fielder’s choice to strand two runners in the second.
The Jaguars left 10 runners on base.
“That’s been the problem with us offensively this year,” Calvi said. “Offensively the numbers aren’t great, but we have had our chances. Today was no different … You credit Arkansas’ pitchers, but we just didn’t finish off an inning. We didn’t land that knockout blow. We landed some jabs. We just didn’t land that big punch that would have put the game away.”
Arkansas tied the game 1-1 in the first on Matt Goodheart’s sacrifice fly to score Franklin, who tripled to lead off the inning. Franklin homered to left field to lead off the third to pull the Razorbacks within 3-2, and Braydon Webb hit a two-out single on a full count to tie the game later in the inning.
“That was huge,” Kjerstad said. “That was a timely hit at the right time … two-out hit to score a run that kept us in the game and kept it close for us.”
Relievers Elijah Trest and Zebulon Vermillion (1-0) held South Alabama without a hit over the game’s final six innings.
Trest walked two and Vermillion’s only base runner came in the seventh on a throwing error by shortstop Casey Martin.
Vermillion struck out six of the 10 batters he faced. He retired the Jaguars’ Nos. 2, 3 and 4 hitters — Ethan Wilson, Powers and Michael Sandle — in the top of the ninth inning to keep the game tied 3-3.
Trest worked out of a couple of jams against the heart of the South Alabama lineup with runners in scoring position. He struck out Wilson and Sandle, and got Powers to fly out after a leadoff walk in the fourth inning. Following a leadoff walk and a one-out hit batsman in the sixth, Trest struck out Wilson and Powers to strand two runners.
“Both of those guys can finish games for us,” Van Horn said. “Like I said [Saturday] after the game, we [had] some of our older guys available for today, and we didn’t mess around too long.”