Arkansas rallies from behind in Georgia series opener
ATHENS, Ga. — No. 6 Arkansas trailed 4-2 after six innings, but a sixrun seventh put the Razorbacks ahead for good in an 8-6 series-opening victory Thursday against No. 13 Georgia.
The second game of the series was rescheduled from 6 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday due to the threat of inclement weather. Arkansas (37-15, 18-10 Southeastern Conference) led Georgia (35-17, 16-12), 6-5, when the two teams entered into a lengthy weather delay in the top of the fifth inning.
The third and final game of the series is scheduled for 11 a.m. today and will be broadcast on the SEC Network (Resort Channel 79). The 2018 SEC Baseball Tournament will be held next week in Hoover, Ala.
Arkansas’ six runs in the seventh inning were punctuated by a goahead two-run home run by senior Luke Bonfield. It was Bonfield’s eighth home run of the year and second in as many games.
Bonfield was 1-for-3 with two runs and two RBIs. He extended his hitting streak to four games and the two RBIs marked his eighth multi-RBI game this year.
The Razorbacks sent 10 batters to the plate during the inning, utilizing five hits, three being singles, along with the home run by Bonfield and a triple by Dominic Fletcher.
Arkansas batters in spots 1-6 accounted for all 11 of the team’s hits
Thursday night. Casey Martin, Heston Kjerstad, and Fletcher all turned in multi-hit games. Martin went nearly perfect at the plate, going 4-for-5 with four-consecutive singles in his first four at-bats.
It was Martin’s second four-hit game of the season. His last was on Feb. 17 against Bucknell, when he went 4-for-6 with five RBIs.
Martin has at least one hit in 16 of his last 21 games and has notched two hits or more nine times over that same span. In his last eight games, Martin is hitting .412 with 14 hits and five multi-hit games.
Fletcher also continued his strong hitting in conference play, going 2-for-5 with a triple and a run scored. In his last 15 games, Fletcher is hitting .386 with 22 hits, 12 RBIs and seven extra-base hits.
Junior right-hander Blaine Knight (9-0) remained undefeated with a six-inning outing and just two earned runs allowed. Arkansas caught the error bug early on as it committed three errors leading to two unearned runs. It was Arkansas’ sixth game with three or more errors this year.
The two earned runs given up by Knight were solo home runs from Cam Shepherd in the second inning and Adam Sasser in the fourth. Knight ended up only giving up one hit in his final 2 1/3 innings, striking out two in the sixth.
Sophomore Matt Cronin made his second appearance in as many games since recovering from an illness and ended up with his 10th save of the year, pitching the final 2 2/3 innings. Cronin faced 11 batters and allowed just one run on three hits. He finished the game with a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth and is now just three saves away from tying the Arkansas all-time single-season saves record set by Colby Suggs in 2013.
With the win, Arkansas held on to its one-game lead in the SEC West. The Hogs have 18 wins in conference play, matching their total from a year ago.
The victory is Arkansas’ sixth straight over Georgia and 10th in its last 11 games in the series. In five of their last six games against the Bulldogs, the Hogs have scored eight or more runs.