Arkansas completes home sweep of A&M
team bouncing back after not playing really well last weekend at Baton Rouge,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said.
Arkansas lost two out of three games at LSU (31-21, 14-13) the previous weekend. The team netted three winning starts against A&M (34-17, 12-15) from junior pitchers Blaine Knight (8-0, 2.87 ERA) on Friday, Kacey Murphy (6-4, 2.30) on Saturday and recently struggling Isaiah Campbell (4-5, 4.29) on Sunday.
Knight struck out 11 against no walks and five hits through seven complete innings on Friday and Murphy threw 7 1/3 innings Saturday with four hits and two walks against five strikeouts. Campbell exited Sunday’s win with Arkansas up, 4-0, after five complete innings with five strikeouts, no walks and five hits.
“I thought Isaiah Campbell threw the ball real well,” Van Horn said. “He got hit around a title bit in the fifth and we thought we are not going to leave him in too long. He was at 70 pitches and about to go the third time through the lineup and we had plenty of guys (relievers) ready to go.”
He used plenty. Cody Scroggins, Evan Lee and Jake Reindl all pitched during A&M’s run-scoring sixth, which Reindl ended by inducing a double play.
Lefty Matt Cronin, pitching the first time since deemed over his mononucleosis diagnosed before the April 27-29 SEC sweep over Alabama (26-27, 7-20), bailed Reindl out of a seventh inning jam and pitched a 1-2-3 eighth before running out of gas with two one-out walks in the ninth.
Barrett Loseke, who pitched the final 1 2/3 innings for Saturday’s save, relieved Reindl for an infield out advancing the runners to score on Cole Bedford’s single up the middle before second baseman Carson Shaddy knocked down Michael Helman’s grounder and threw for the out to first to the game. Shaddy is the Razorbacks’ other four-year letterman senior with Bonfield to play in his final SEC game at Baum Stadium.
Shaddy hit a three-run home run Friday night and knocked in all three Arkansas runs Saturday afternoon.
Bonfield landed Sunday’s punch. He got the RBI for Arkansas’ first-inning run on a grounder, scoring a runner from third, while the Aggies threw away a chance for a double play in their frame fraught with two of their four miscues.
A&M losing Sunday starter Stephen Kolek (5-5) walked Casey Martin and hit Heston Kjerstad to open the third inning when he fell behind to Bonfield. From down 3-1 in the count, Kolek fell to down 4-0 on the scoreboard. Bonfield’s blast boomed over the bullpen in left and the seats behind it.
“Really good at-bat,” Van Horn said. “He worked the count, laid off some borderline pitches and then got the 3-1 fastball and did just what we hoped he’d do with it. It went from a one-run lead to a four-run lead real quick.”
Bonfield believed up in the count he could put the Aggies down for the count.
“They were trying to bust me in all day and that’s what they kind of did my first at bat,” Bonfield said. “I was kind of saying, ‘All right, if they try to come in, which I thought they were going to try to do, just get your hands out and put a good swing on it.’ I got that pitch and I didn’t miss it.”
His family from New Jersey was able to witness it firsthand.
“It was awesome,” Bonfield said. “It was awesome to have my family in the stands, awesome to play with my teammates. These guys are like my brothers, so I’m hoping that we have a lot more time left together. That’s what I’m focused on right now.”
Given A&M’s ninth-inning rally, the Razorbacks netted two big insurance runs in the eighth off A&M submarine-style reliever Nolan Hoffman via freshman backup catcher Casey Opitz’s sacrifice fly and an RBI double by first baseman and Spiro, Okla. native Hunter Wilson. Right fielder Chandler Morris gloved Wilson’s double but could not hold on. It was a similar play to Shaddy’s two-run double in the seventh inning on Saturday.
Opitz finished for All-SEC catcher Grant Koch whose ankle, injured during the seventh inning, was scheduled to be X-rayed.
The Hogs already had backup shortstop Jack Kenley filling in since starting shortstop Jax Biggers broke a finger during Friday’s first inning. Kenley turned in Sunday’s defensive gem with a diving stop and flip to second baseman Shaddy to Michael Helman’s potential RBI single up the middle into a third inning-ending double play.