Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Hogs hit four homers
ARKANSAS 14, AUBURN 7
FAYETTEVILLE — Michael Bernal hit two of No. 18 Arkansas’ four home runs and right-hander Keaton McKinney notched his first victory of the season as the Razorbacks out-slugged Auburn 14-7 on Saturday night.
The Razorbacks (17-6, 2-3 SEC) clinched the series before an estimated crowd of 7,168 at Baum Stadium and sent Auburn (11-12, 1-4) into sole possession of last place in the SEC West by posting their highest run total in a conference game since a 15-3 victory at South Carolina on March 22, 2013. Arkansas won its first home series against the Tigers since a three-game sweep in 2006, and won series over Auburn in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2006-07.
Arkansas will send freshman right-hander Barrett Loseke (1-0, 1.23 ERA) to the mound in today’s 1 p.m. finale against righty Cole Lipscomb (1-2, 6.33) looking for a sweep.
McKinney (1-0) had recorded no-decisions in each
of his five starts before allowing three hits through six shutout innings against the Tigers, the No. 2 hitting team in the SEC. The sophomore lowered his ERA from 6.30 to 4.85.
“I walked a lot of guys and I didn’t want to do that, but when I needed to bear down and make a pitch today, I seemed to get it inside on their lefties and that helped a lot,” said McKinney, who walked five and struck out three.
“He got us out of a couple of small jams early,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said of McKinney. “His command was OK, but he made some big pitches. You can tell he’s getting more confidence with each outing.”
Bernal increased his home run total to six with a pair of two-run shots in the fourth and fifth innings, the first an opposite-field shot to right and the other a liner over the left-field wall.
“I feel like I’ve been flying open a lot and just missing balls,” Bernal said. “I was just trying to stay on the ball to both parts of the field. One of the biggest things was staying on that ball the other way. That was good for me and something I’ve been working on.”
Luke Bonfield connected for a two-run homer in Arkansas’ five-run sixth inning and Chad Spanberger added a solo shot in the eighth inning for the Hogs’ first four-home run game against an SEC opponent since an 8-0 victory over Tennessee on May 17, 2012.
Arkansas broke on top in the first inning against Auburn freshman Casey Mize (1-2).
Clark Eagan led off the inning with a single up the middle on the first pitch. He moved up on a passed ball and a ground out by Jake Arledge then scored on Cullen Gassaway’s RBI grounder to third base.
Auburn had runners on base in all six innings against McKinney, stranding seven. McKinney induced a double-play grounder to second baseman Rick Nomura from Niko Buentello to end the first inning.
Nomura drew a walk on four pitches to open the Arkansas fourth and stayed on first as Luke Bonfield struck out and Chad Spanberger lined out to center. But Bernal hammered the first pitch he saw from Mize over the right field wall for an opposite-field
homer, his fifth of the season, to make it 3-0.
When Tucker Pennell followed with a hard-hit double to the left-field corner, Mize’s night was over.
Auburn blunders and Bernal’s second home run highlighted the Razorbacks’ fiverun fifth inning against the tender Tigers’ bullpen.
Carson Shaddy’s bunt single was sandwiched between walks by Arledge and Gassaway to load the bases against lefty Andrew Mitchell. Nomura’s double-play grounder brought home Arledge for a 4-0 Arkansas lead.
After Bonfield drew a walk, Mitchell was in position to escape further damage when Chad Spanberger hit a towering fly ball to medium-depth right field. However, Auburn’s Jackson Burgreen dropped the fly and both runners scored, capped by a hustling Bonfield sliding home just ahead of a tag by catcher Blake Logan.
Bernal capped the big uprising with a scalding line drive over the left-field wall to give Arkansas an 8-0 lead.
Gassaway hit an RBI double, Nomura added a two-run single and Bonfield cracked a two-run home run off Daniel Sprinkle, the brother of Arkansas tight end Jeremy Sprinkle, in the Hogs’ five-run sixth that made it 13-0.
Auburn carved into the deficit on Joshua Palacios’ three-run home run over the right field wall off Ty Harris in the seventh inning. Palacios added an RBI single in Auburn’s two-run eighth, and Damon Haecker stroked a two-run double for Auburn in the ninth off Kacey Murphy.