Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Hogs thrive from ‘chute’ to title
FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas won an outright SEC championship late Friday by coalescing early when some of their conference rivals did not, then playing more consistently than any team in the nation.
The No. 1 Razorbacks pulled off a feat that had only been done once in SEC history by winning all 10 of their conference series, stretching their streak of series wins to 17 in a row dating back to the 2019 post-season. Throw in a season-opening weekend in Arlington, Texas, in which Arkansas defeated No. 3 Texas Tech, No. 10 Texas and No. 11 TCU and the tale of dominance in 2021 comes into an even clearer focus.
“The thing that I think about every now and then is that maybe we just got our g roup f igured out earlier than some of the other teams,”
Coach Dave
Va n Ho r n said after Friday’s 4-3 win over Florida clinched the outright conference title. “We got ‘em going early. Right out of the chute, man, they were ready to go in Arlington, Texas.”
Van Horn has notched many notable accomplishments in his 19 seasons at Arkansas, including six College World Series appearances and a shared SEC title in 2004. The current streak, coming with loaded rosters across the league and with covid-19 still having an imprint on the season, will shine as a career highlight.
“We’ve just played really well every weekend,” Van Horn said. “Some better than others but always just enough. I mean, we put together some really good ball games to clinch series.”
Van Horn said you can’t expect to go through a 10-series SEC schedule and win them all.
“You just expect that maybe one weekend’s not going to go your way,” he said. “We always talk to our guys in the fall about league play and how tough it is. The new guys, they probably don’t believe it until they see it. The older guys try to tell them that it’s a grind and it’s hard to win.
“We always tell them, ‘Hey, if you’re having a bad weekend, don’t get swept. If you have a chance to sweep, find a way to win that third game.’ It’s really hard to do. And win every series you can when you get the opportunity.”
Arkansas officials wasted no time promoting their league title, as a fresh stencil with “2021” was applied on the left-field wall at Baum-Walker Stadium on Friday night prior to Saturday’s 9-3 win for a sweep of the Gators.
ESPN analyst Kyle Peterson said the Razorbacks are the national No. 1 seed without a doubt.
“They’re the No. 1 seed,” Peterson said during the early innings of Saturday’s regular-season finale against No. 8 Florida. “They could lose today, lose two in Hoover [at the SEC Tournament] and I don’t think it makes any difference. They’re the No. 1 seed.”
The Razorbacks clinched the SEC title in a manner completely fitting with their 2021 profile. They fell behind 3-0 in the top of the second inning, then began chipping away with a combination of the long ball (home runs by Christian Franklin and Robert Moore) and small ball, with a Jalen Battles sacrifice fly to score Moore.
The bullpen tacked five scoreless innings onto starter Caleb Bolden’s goose eggs in the third and fourth, and the staff combined for 17 strikeouts, including the final 10 outs.
Caden Monke lowered his ERA to 2.94 with 3 scoreless innings that included 7 strikeouts. Then Kevin Kopps came on to strike out three on 12 pitches in his only inning to improve to 10-0 with strong back-to-back outings. Kopps, a strong candidate for SEC pitcher or even player of the year, lowered his ERA to 0.73.
Arkansas scored a pair of runs in the second inning to draw within 3-2, then added single runs in the eighth and ninth to notch their 12th comefrom-behind win when trailing by three or more runs this season.
Charlie Welch, whose shot over the right fielder’s head as a pinch hitter drove in senior catcher Casey Opitz with the winning run, was greeted with a standing ovation before his pinch-hit double Saturday.
“It was so loud,” Welch said Friday of his game-winning hit. “You could barely hear yourself think out there when it was going on. Everyone’s swarming you in the outfield. Just extremely exciting. Nobody else I’d rather be doing it with, either. We’re a family here, and we’re going to go out there and give it our best every day.”
Van Horn said he asked his assistant coaches if they remembered their first conference game of the season. That’s the one the Hogs lost 16-1 to Alabama at the end of a three-game skid, their only losing streak of the season.
“That one got away from us, but we didn’t let it faze us,” Van Horn said. “We’re excited for everyone involved with the baseball program right now.”
After allowing 16 runs in their SEC opener, the Razorbacks gave up 16 runs in their next nine SEC series openers, outscoring opponents 54-16 while going 8-1 in those games.
Arkansas won series against six teams ranked in the top 25, four on the road, including a sweep at thenNo. 3 Mississippi State. The Hogs also took two of three at No. 4 Ole Miss, No. 5 Tennessee and No. 11 South Carolina, and won home series against No. 22 Alabama and No. 8 Florida.