Arkansas loses control in ninth as Vanderbilt takes two

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The pitching problems that plagued Arkansas as it made its way east to Vanderbilt traveled with the Razorbacks for their opening series in SEC play.

Arkansas dropped both games of a doubleheader to the defending NCAA champion Commodores on Saturday night. Vanderbilt rallied from four down in the ninth of the first game before winning 8-7 in the 12th in a game that took 4 hours and 54 minutes. The Commodores cruised to a 9-1 victory in the nightcap that took a more reasonable 3:15.

Arkansas’ starting pitchers, Keaton McKinney and Dominic Taccolini, combined to pitch 61/ innings, allowing 14 hits, 10 runs, 6 earned, walking 4, and striking out 3 against 41 batters.

The Razorbacks are hoping Trey Killian, who made his debut last weekend on a limited pitch count because of elbow tendinitis in his throwing arm, can right the ship when he starts today.

“We still have a lot of growing up to do, and we still have a lot of things that we need to get done in our bullpen and with a couple of our starting pitchers,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “But it’s 30 games. You can’t get too high or too low. You’ve just got to battle, get up and come out and do it again tomorrow.”

The Razorbacks (9-7, 0-2 SEC) had the first game of the doubleheader well in hand entering the bottom of the ninth with a 7-3 lead. They had even padded the advantage with runs in the eighth and ninth and had kept the Commodores (15-4, 2-0) off the board for five innings.

Vanderbilt rallied by scoring the 4 runs on 2 hits and drawing 4 walks against Zach Jackson.

“It ’s disappointing I couldn’t finish that for us,” Jackson said. “That’s a loss that really, really hurts because that game was in the bag for us. We outplayed them for 81/ innings. We’ve got to learn to finish, and we’ve got to come back tomorrow and get a big win.”

Jackson had been solid up to the ninth.

Through 32/ innings, the sophomore had faced 15 batters, allowed no runs, 1 hit, struck out 7, and walked 1. Then the ninth happened.

“I had all three pitches working for me at any point, and I got into that ninth inning and I could kind of tell I was wearing down a little bit,” he said. “I don’t know if it was just me trying to overthrow, but I could definitely tell I was getting out of control. I couldn’t control my pitches, couldn’t get it over the zone, and walks will kill you.”

A Rhett Wiseman RBI triple in the 12th won the first game for the Commodores. Jacob Stone (0-2) took the loss, going the final 22/ innings.

The Razorback bats were flat in the second game save for Andrew Benintendi’s fifth home run of the year, a solo shot in the fourth.

Vanderbilt scored two apiece in the second and sixth innings and had a five-run fifth that chased Taccolini (32). Arkansas pitchers hit five batters in the second game after hitting one in the opener.

Preseason All-American Walker Buehler (1-0), who had worked just five innings through the first 18 games of the season because of elbow soreness, pitched 6 innings for the victory, allowing 4 hits, 1 run, earned, striking out 7, and walking 1 in 21 batters faced to get the victory.

“The issue was they had a kid named Buehler on the mound that was just outstanding,” Van Horn said. “His fastball was anywhere from 92-95, and he wasn’t throwing it anywhere near where we could hit it. I’ve been around him firsthand and seen him pitch all summer. He’s pretty darn good.”

Vanderbilt goes for the series sweep this afternoon. Arkansas has never been swept in a three-game series to open conference play under Van Horn.

CENTRAL ARKANSAS 8, LAMAR 4

The University of Central Arkansas (93, 4-0) overcame a 4-0 deficit to defeat Lamar (7-9, 0-4) on Saturday night at Bear Stadium in Conway.

UCA fell behind 3-0 in the second inning and Lamar added another run in the top of the third before the Bears rallied. UCA got two runs in the bottom of the third on an RBI single by second baseman Chris Townsend and an RBI triple to right field by third baseman Nate Ferrell.

The Bears tied the game with two runs in the fifth inning. Tyler Langley led off with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch and eventually scored on Travis Hull’s base hit to left field. A throwing error by Lamar’s left fielder on the play allowed Towsend to come in as well and tie the game at 4-4.

UCA took the lead for good in the next inning when left fielder Wesley Hoover doubled down the right-field line, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on another one for a 5-4 lead.

The Bears put the game out of reach with a three-run eighth inning against Lamar’s bullpen. Joey Pinney led off with a walk and Nick Rougeau pinch ran for him. Matt Anderson drew a walk and Logan Preston’s sacrifice bunt moved both runners.

Langley then laced a base hit to right field scoring both runners. Langley stole second base and scored the final run on Braxton Phillips’ RBI single up the middle.