Burned by Longhorns
Arkansas pitchers allow 14 walks in 7-6 loss in Austin.
AUSTIN, Texas — University of Arkansas baseball Coach Dave Van Horn and pitching coach Matt Hobbs might want to burn the videotape of Wednesday night’s midweek game at Texas.
The night after defeating No. 15 Texas with an 11-hit attack, the No. 9 Arkansas Razorbacks stranded runners all night as their young pitchers whipped up a mess with wildness in a 7-6 loss before a crowd of 6,260 at Disch-Falk Field.
Eight Arkansas pitchers combined to walk 14 batters, one shy of the school record, and its hitters stranded 10 runners in the first 6 innings and 11 for the marathon game that lasted 3 hours, 53 minutes.
“That was ugly,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “That would’ve been hard to watch from the stands if you really like baseball.
“There were some good things in there with a couple of our pitchers. But for the most part they struggled with command. We walked them and we hit ‘em and that’s why they beat us.”
Texas (16-8) broke a fivegame losing streak to the Razorbacks (18-3) and snapped the Hogs’ seven-game winning streak.
Arkansas outhit the Longhorns 9-6, with Jacob Nesbit providing 3 of the hits with 2 RBI and Trevor Ezell notching 2 hits. However, the Razorbacks went 2 of 12 (.167) with runners in scoring position. Jack Kenley had a double and reached base four times, including two on hit by pitches, to lead the Razorbacks.
The Razorbacks made it interesting with two outs in the ninth as Kenley was hit by a pitch and Nesbit doubled into the left-field corner
to make it 7-6. However, pinch hitter Matt Goodheart struck out to end the game and strand the Hogs’ 11th runner.
Arkansas ran out a string of relievers, but the Hogs’ young arms were not up to the task, putting Longhorns all over the bases. The Razorbacks threw 209 pitches and 107 of them were balls.
Texas scored two runs on bases-loaded walks, two more on bases-loaded hit by pitches, and another when catcher Zack Plunkett overthrew pitcher Liam Henry after a pitch with a man on third base.
The Longhorns scored runs in four consecutive innings, overtaking Arkansas with a three-run sixth.
Texas tied it 5-5 on Zach Zubia’s run-scoring single off Elijah Trest (0-1), took the lead on Tate Shaw’s walk with the bases full and went ahead 7-5 when Michael McCann was hit by a pitch.
Arkansas right fielder Heston Kjerstad prevented the lead from growing in the seventh with a superb throw to home plate. Three Longhorns walked to load the bases
with one out. Zubia lifted a fly ball toward the line in medium-depth right field. Kjerstad positioned himself well for the catch and threw a strike to home plate for Plunkett to tag Duke Ellis on a head-first slide. Ellis was called out by home plate umpire Jerry Johnson and a long replay review upheld the double-play call.
Right-hander Tristan Stevens (2-1), the sixth of seven Texas pitchers, picked up the victory by recording the last two outs in the sixth.
Cole Quintanilla relieved
in the seventh and got the last eight outs to post his fourth save.
Just like in Tuesday’s rout, the Razorbacks broke through with a big second inning by batting around and plating four runs.
Jordan McFarland was hit by a pitch from Kolby Kubicheck to start the inning and Kenley followed with a ground-rule double to left field. Nesbit served the first pitch he saw into right field for an RBI single to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. Plunkett brought home the second run with a well-executed safety squeeze bunt.
Christian Franklin hit a bouncer over the mound that trickled off the glove of second baseman Lance Ford to bring home Nesbit. With two outs, shortstop Masen Hibbeler made a nice stop on Kjerstad’s sharp grounder to the hole, but his throw short-hopped first baseman Tate Shaw and bounced free, allowing Franklin to score and make it 4-0.
The Razorbacks loaded the bases with one out in the third before Franklin hit into a double play.
Arkansas stranded nine runners during a five-inning stretch. “We had a couple of chances in the middle of the game,” Van Horn said. “Instead, momentum going back to their dugout and we have all these young guys coming in that are having trouble throwing it over the plate. So you could see it swinging. We needed to score a few runs.” 1 11/3 AB R H 5 1 2 4 0 1 4 1 0 1 2 0 4 1 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 4 1 1 BI 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 2 0