Razorbacks’ quick start leads to convincing win

FAYETTEVILLE — After four consecutive tense games to open the Razorback Invitational, the University of Arkansas softball team claimed its first comfortable victory at home this season.

Rylin Hedgecock hit a three-run homer in her first at-bat, and seventh-ranked Arkansas (12-3) coasted to a 7-2 win over Drake on Saturday afternoon in front of 2,646 at Bogle Park.

Coach Courtney Deifel and the Razorbacks improved to 4-1 in the tournament, which also featured 13th-ranked Arizona.

All three of Arkansas’ previous Razorback Invitational wins came by one run. Setting the tone early and not having to sweat in the seventh inning against Drake pleased the Razorbacks’ eight-year coach.

“That’s huge,” Deifel said of the hot start. “You know there’s going to be multiple punches thrown, so when you can make the first one, I think that’s huge. Ultimately you just want to make the last one, but I just felt like we never really gave up the momentum. We really controlled the game nicely.”

Hedgecock’s home run came in the game’s third atbat, after Reagan Johnson and Hannah Gammill reached with base hits. Arkansas widened the gap by two more runs in the second inning when Gammill shot a single up the middle to score Atalyia Rijo and Raigan Kramer. The Razorbacks took a 5-0 advantage into the third inning.

The onslaught of early runs was all starting pitcher Callie Turner needed to earn her third win of the season. Turner held Drake scoreless until the sixth inning and finished with four hits allowed and seven strikeouts.

“I was throwing lots of offspeeds and I felt really good,” Turner said. “I was really excited to get the start and then just be able to pitch a good amount of the game.”

The Razorbacks tacked on two more runs in the fifth inning with an RBI double from Rylee Cloud followed by an RBI single by Hannah Camenzind. Arkansas’ 7-0 lead held firm until the Bulldogs’ tworun triple in the sixth inning.

Robyn Herron took the circle for the Razorbacks in the seventh inning and shut the door on Drake with a scoreless outing.

“I just thought it was a really great game from start to finish,” Deifel said. “I thought Callie set a really great tone in the circle. It was nice to jump on them right away, especially coming off yesterday. I just feel like we grabbed the game in inning one and never relinquished it.”

The first-inning home run from Hedgecock was her second in as many days, following an impressive Clearwater Invitational last weekend when she hit three home runs.

“I really liked, especially yesterday, that she just kind of let the game come back to her,” Deifel said of the junior. “This is an interesting game because you’re going to fail so much more than you succeed.

And so you can easily kind of let yourself slide. I think she just kind of stayed pretty even and let the game come back to her. Then obviously she’s tremendously powerful. She looks great.”

In the Razorbacks’ early-season slate of games, it has included matchups against six ranked teams and four one-run games.

The ability to respond and find ways to win is something Turner said should bode well for Arkansas down the stretch.

“As long as we’re aggressive and we just trust ourselves and our abilities, I think we can go really far come postseason,” she said.

Arkansas and Drake will conclude the Razorback Invitational today at 11 a.m.