Van Horn’s opinion: UA ‘couldn’t stop anybody’
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas saved one of its worst performances for its final home game of the season.
Auburn pounded out 18 hits and scored in each inning except the ninth to defeat the Razorbacks 12-5 on Saturday before a crowd of 6,623 at Baum Stadium.
Auburn won the deciding game in the series with nine players getting at least one hit against seven Arkansas pitchers. The 12 runs and 18 hits were the most allowed this season by Arkansas (3517, 13-14 SEC), which lost a home series to Auburn (28-23, 12-15) for the third consecutive time.
Arkansas finished 28-8 at Baum Stadium this season after winning 18 of its first 19 games at home.
Arkansas was hoping for a series victory, or even a sweep, against Auburn after the Tigers were swept the previous weekend against Georgia. Auburn instead took 2 of 3 from Arkansas after losing 5-4 on Friday when it made four errors.
Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn’s disappointment was apparent when he met with his players for 42 minutes on the field Saturday before entering the media room to talk with reporters.
“Just pretty much saying
that we need to play with a little more heart,” Arkansas third baseman Matt Reynolds said regarding the topic of conversation during the long meeting between the Razorbacks players and coaches. “We feel like we’re not playing our best baseball and we’re not acting like we want to be here, but we feel like there is much more in the tank.
“We just need to show more energy at the field and play with a little more heart.”
Ryan Tella, Jay Gonzalez and Bobby Andrews each had three hits for Auburn, while Arkansas’ Dominic Ficociello hit a home run for the second consecutive game. Slade Smith (4-5) earned the victory, while Brandon Moore (4-2) took the loss for the Razorbacks.
“We knew it was crunch time in this series with Arkansas,” said Patrick Savage, who hit his fourth home of the season for Auburn. “We knew if we didn’t do well, we might not make it to a regional or the SEC Tournament. Hopefully, we climbed up a little bit after this weekend.”
Arkansas fell behind early after a poor performance by starter Nolan Sanburn, who faced only 9 batters and allowed 3 runs and 4 hits before he was relieved by Tyler Wright. Wright faced six batters and gave up a run before he was replaced by Brandon Moore, who held Auburn to 2
2 runs in 2 ⁄ innings.
3 Sanburn filled in for Ryne Stanek, who missed the series because of a stiff back. Arkansas also received a poor start Friday night when Randall Fant was pulled after three innings.
“It was just a lot of frustration because of a lot of things,” Van Horn said. “Probably, more than anything, is the first couple pitchers out of the chute have to give us four or five innings and they gave us an inning each. We’re already down because of Stanek, trying to get through the weekend without him.
“We had to have some guys step up, and we couldn’t stop anybody.”
Ficociello hit a home run left-handed after he delivering one right-handed in Arkansas’ victory Friday. Reynolds added two more hits for the Razorbacks and now has reached base in 35 consecutive games.
Arkansas was trailing 5-3 in the fourth inning when Auburn Coach John Pawlowski was ejected for arguing a call at first base. The Razorbacks responded briefly by tying the game before Auburn pulled away again with two runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh.
Pawlowski’s ejection began after Auburn’s Mitchell Self threw wide at first base after fielding Tim Carver’s hard grounder at third base. Carver was called safe, and Pawlowski was thrown out after arguing the call.
It didn’t appear Auburn was bothered by losing its head coach as the Tigers continued to batter Arkansas’ pitching to take an 11-5 lead in the seventh.
“[Pawlowski] got us going with a little bit of a spark and our guys decided to step up,” said Auburn assistant Scott Foxhall, who took over after Pawlowski was ejected. “There were runs scored before that, but it was kind of a pillow fight.
“Sometimes teams can back down and go into a corner after that. But we gained some energy, kept fighting and put together some good innings.”
Arkansas will face Louisiana Tech in a nonconference game Tuesday at Dickey-stephens Park in North Little Rock before traveling to Knoxville, Tenn., for its final SEC series against Tennessee.
That series will begin Thursday, which will allow an extra day to prepare for the SEC Tournament on May 2227 in Hoover, Ala.