5,000+ see Razorbacks defeat Shockers in exhibition game
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas took home a
10-1 exhibition win Friday in 14 innings against Wichita State in front of an announced crowd of
5,142 at Baum Stadium.
The game was the first of two fall exhibition games now allowed by the NCAA. Arkansas will visit Little Rock’s Gary Hogan Field on Friday to face the Trojans in an exhibition the night before the Razorbacks football team hosts Ole Miss at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Friday’s baseball game is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Saturday’s football game is scheduled for
6:30 p.m. and will be shown on the SEC Network (Resort Channel 79).
Sophomore Heston Kjerstad, who is coming off an All-American and SEC Freshman of the Year campaign, went 1-for-5 in the opening nine innings. His lone hit was a two-run opposite-field home run in the first inning that got Arkansas’ offense going.
On the mound, Arkansas’ pitching staff allowed only one run on five hits throughout the night. Redshirt junior right-hander Isaiah Campbell got the start and battled through a shaky first inning to strike out eight batters over four innings. He only walked one batter and threw
63 pitches, retiring four of the last five he faced. “There were some good things, but there were obviously some things we need to work on,” said Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn. “Try to get everybody in in the second half, but obviously our pitching was outstanding and if you look how (Isaiah) Campbell started it out, his first five outs were from strikeouts before they got a hit. He didn’t have his breaking stuff until his last inning and he did a nice job with it.”
For the next five innings, the Arkansas coaching staff worked its pitchers as if it were a real game. With a 2-0 lead after the first, junior Jacob Kostyshock threw two perfect innings, striking out three. Redshirt junior Cody Scroggins threw a perfect seventh inning, followed by a perfect eighth by sophomore Kole Ramage.
With the score 3-1 going into the ninth, junior lefty Matt Cronin closed out the game. Cronin, who set the Arkansas single-season record for saves with 14 last year, struck out the side on 12 pitches.
“Then, it was one right after another came in and really threw the ball well, held them down,” Van Horn said. “They only had four or five hits throughout the night. Offensively, the positive would be that we took advantage of things. We scored when they walked us or they made an error here or there.
“We punched in some runs and we got a big three-run homer after the walk, but there were too many strikeouts. We have to cut those in half and we have to give credit to their first pitcher (McGinness). He threw a lot of breaking balls, change-ups, and kept us off balance. They brought in another lefty, another guy throwing a lot of breaking balls and we didn’t do a good job with it. It’s early and it was a good learning experience for us.”
Arkansas added five more runs in the 10th as its starting lineup got one more turn at the plate before giving way to the bench. Sophomore junior college transfer Matt Goodheart was 2-for5, including a long home run over the right field bullpen. He finished with four RBIs.
“On Kjerstad’s, I think it was a changeup and he just stayed on it,” Van Horn said. “We knew from the dugout as soon as it left the bat it was out of here.
“I think Goodheart took some good swings early in the game and fouled some balls back, but then he got all of that one and drove it through the wind over the back wall. He’s been swinging the bat good in practice that’s why I DH’ed him. I also put him at first tonight and left field. Obviously, in a normal game you wouldn’t be able to move him around and take him out like that. We discussed that before the game, if we had a DH, we wanted to move him around and that’s what I did with him because I think that is what he’ll do for us. I think he’ll play a little outfield and some first base; a good DH and I want him to hit.