Razorbacks fall in series opener
FAYETTEVILLE - Baum Stadium became McArthur Park Thursday night.
For the Arkansas Razorbacks, Thursday’s name change meant a 9-1 loss to Ole Miss Rebels freshman right-hander James McArthur before 4,1669 in the opener of a 3-game SEC West series.
Originally set to continue at 6 tonight and 4 p.m., the series, because of torrential rain forecast from around 8 p.m. through Saturday night, now concludes with a noon doubleheader at Baum today.
Coach Dave Van Horn’s nationally 14th-ranked (coaches poll) Razorbacks bring 33-11 and 12-7 overall and SEC West records into today’s twin-bill while coach Mike Bianco’s Rebels improved to 26-16 overall, 10-9 in the SEC West.
Other than Jared Gates’ fifth-inning home run cutting Ole Miss’ lead to 2-1, McArthur one-hit the Razorbacks through eight complete while striking out six and walking two.
Chad Spanberger doubled off Ole Miss reliever Will Etheridge in the ninth for Arkansas’ lone other hit.
By then the Razorbacks were done, 9-1 having scored three in the eighth and four in the ninth.
Arkansas ace starter Blaine Knight of Bryant, routed for the first time this season in last week’s 15-2 SEC West loss at Auburn, might have seemed routed again only considering Thursday night’s final score.
Actually, Knight, seven hits and two walks against 10 strikeouts, pitched well for seven complete, keeping Arkansas in the game down just 2-1 before running out of gas during Ole Miss’ three-run eighth.
Knight was tagged only for Tate Blackman’s two-run home run in the second inning until yielding a single and Colby Bortles’ tworun home run with one out in the eighth followed by Ryan Olenek’s double before a hit off Arkansas reliever Josh Alberius drove him home.
Tim Rowe and Bortles again homered off Alberius during Ole Miss’ four-run ninth.
“I thought Blaine pitched well,” Van Horn said. “He gave us a chance. He was running out of gas there a little bit and made a mistake to Bortles. Left a ball up first pitch and he jumped on it and really gave them a nice cushion. I give Blaine credit. After giving
up a two-run homer (to Blackman) on an 0-2 pitch — which is a mistake obviously, the pitch was supposed to be down, and he left it up — he battled back. He gave us everybody to catch up and we didn’t.” Knight sure tried.
“Guys weren’t hitting tonight,” Knight said. “It’s going to happen. I tried to keep us in the game but I messed up on two pitches and happened to leave them up and in the SEC you are going to get punished for it.”
Especially Knight said, by veterans like Blackman and Bortles.
“They had a bunch of freshmen on the team that sat there and chased all night,” Knight said. “It wasn’t hard to get those guys out. They’re coming of high school. Different story with Bortles and especially Blackman, too.”
Other than Gates’s one swing, nobody, veteran, rookie or transfer, made McArthur pay Thursday night.
“He got ahead of most everybody,” Van Horn said.
“The first pitch in most at-bats he really didn't give you too much to hit. It was always away. He kept a lot of pitches down. Then he'd get ahead of you and throw you fastballs up and try to get you to wave at them. He threw some changeups.
“Didn't throw a lot of breaking balls. He was a little deceiving.”
Gates was asked to asses the Rebels’ freshman flash.
“His fast ball was good, a lot of velo on it,” Gates said. “It had a lot of spin, I guess you could call it. It rose, it seemed like. Had a lot of movement to it.”
For today’s noon doubleheader, Arkansas starts customary SEC series Game Two righthander Trevor Stephan and for today’s second game will debut SEC start sophomore lefthander Kacey Murphy unless Van Horn is compelled to use Murphy in relief in today’s first game.
Ole Miss will stick with its regular rotation of left-handers Ryan Rolison and David Parkinson.
“He kind of challenged us to come out and compete tomorrow,” Gates said of Van Horn’s Thursday night postgame address. “He said he had a feeling it was going to go bad tonight just because of the energy or the vibe he got. He lit a fire under us. We'll answer the call tomorrow.”