Walk-off gives Hogs series over Trojans
FAYETTEVILLE — Benched Sunday because of his .194 batting average, sophomore preseason All-Southeastern Conference center fielder Dominic Fletcher resurfaced as Arkansas’ hitting hero.
Pinch-hitter Fletcher delivered the game-ending, eighth-inning, bases loaded single that broke a 6-6 tie and beat the Southern California Trojans (8-3), 7-6, after Arkansas (9-3) won two of a threegame series watched by 20,454 for the weekend at Baum Stadium.
“The team was highly excited for the win but probably just as excited for Dominic to get that big hit,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “He has had a lot of struggles and his teammates were really pulling for him to come through.”
They gave Fletcher almost a College World Series type reception as he was minus his jersey and soaked upon his game-winner.
“I saw them coming after me crazy, so I took off into right field to try and get away, but they caught me,” Fletcher said. “Luckily, they pulled it (the jersey) over my head, so no rips. But I got a nice Gatorade bath. It was pretty big, not only for me but for our team to come off that series with two wins and send them home.”
Winning four games in five days, the Razorbacks swept two from Dayton on Wednesday and Thursday before hosting Kent State in a three-game nonconference series starting Friday.
Sunday’s 3,635 on a cold, dark wind blowing in day was the sparsest crowd of the series that Arkansas opened Friday topping the Trojans, 4-0, on the combined shutout of winning starter Blaine Knight of Bryant and three-inning save reliever Jackson Rutledge and Luke Bonfield’s two-run home run and 3 RBI.
USC prevailed, 3-1, Saturday as Trojan lefty starter Quentin Longrie and relievers Brad Legman and Connor Lunn scattered nine hits with Eric Cole’s solo home run the lone Arkansas hit proving significant.
Because the Trojans had a plane to catch back to Los Angeles, Sunday’s 12:30 p.m. start was accompanied by an arrangement not to start an inning after 4 p.m.
“I told coach (Mike) Anderson I’d be coaching basketball if I would be coaching
with a clock,” Van Horn said. “I don’t like it. I want to make sure we’re getting our allotment of outs.”
So, upon finishing the seventh inning down 6-5, the Hogs hustled back on the field with five minutes to spare for ultimately winning freshman reliever Rutledge to enter the game and limit the Trojans to an eighth-inning walk.
Lunn, already with five saves, opened the eighth seeking to close it. The Hogs sought otherwise.
Jax Biggers led off singling through short. Switch-hitting Cole “swung from his heels,” Van Horn said, and missed, tried a sacrifice bunt that went foul then blasted one that USC center fielder Matthew Acosta gambled he could catch on the dive. He couldn’t, Cole’s triple rolled deep into enter with Biggers scoring the tying run.
“On the first pitch I missed it pretty bad,” Cole said. “Then they gave me bunt and I didn’t get that down. So really quick I had to tell myself on
Oaklawn Park Workouts the next pitch I have to get it done. He left me a pitch low and I was able to put a good swing on it. Thankfully he ( Acosta) didn’t catch it, so it worked out for us.”
Lunn intentionally walked No. 3 and No. 4 hitters Heston Kjerstad and Bonfield to pitch to freshman Easton Murrell who had stranded five runners as a pinch-hitter and designated hitter, grounding out and striking out ending the fifth and sixth.
With a five-man infield drawn in without a center fielder, Fletcher lined one through the middle and uncomfortably close to literally through pitcher Lunn.
“He squared it up about as good as you could square it up through the middle,” Van Horn said. “I don’t know how hard it came back through the middle but it was a lot harder than it came in.”
Until the game’s end, Arkansas only led once, 1-0 in the second on Grant Koch’s infield out scoring freshman Casey Martin, who had doubled lead off the inning and advanced on Jared Gates’ ground out.
USC tied it 1-1 off starter Kacey Murphy in the fourth on an unearned run as first baseman Gates missed right fielder Kjerstad’s throw in from Stephen Dubb’s double allowing Jamal O’Guinn to score from first.
Arkansas relievers Barrett Loeske, yanked after a single and walk, and Jake Reindl collectively allowed four USC runs in the fifth, including Dillon Paulson’s two-run doubale, Acosta’s RBI single and Biggers’ throwing error.
Acosta scored the 6-5 go-ahead run in the seventh off Blake Sabols RBI single against Reindl after Martin’s single led off a four-run Arkansas sixth.
The Arkansas sixth included Koch’s double, setting the table for RBIs on second baseman Hunter Wilson’s infield out and singles by Cole and Kjerstad. Reliever Austin Manning wildpitched in the then tying run.