No Hangover: Champion Hogs remain businesslike
FAYETTEVILLE — After the Arkansas Razorbacks clinched the outright SEC championship by beating Florida late Friday night on Charlie Welch’s ninth-inning, pinch-hit RBI double, a letdown would have been understandable. Maybe even expected.
Instead, the No. 1 Razorbacks just kept the party going Saturday afternoon by pounding the No. 8 Gators 9-3 at Baum-Walker Stadium before an announced crowd of 11,084.
“That’s just the way this team is,” University of Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “It’s its personality. These guys, when they step on the field, they want to win. There were no motivation speeches about playing hard andm ‘Let’s go ahead and win this.’
“I didn’t have to get into anything about them wanting to be there. They showed up and got after it. That’s the 2021 team. They’re something else.”
Arkansas (42-10, 22-8 SEC) completed a three-game a sweep after beating the Gators (35-19, 17-13) 6-1 and 4-3 in the series’ first two games.
“Credit Arkansas — they played really well this weekend,” Florida Coach Kevin O’Sullivan said on his postgame radio show. “They just outplayed us. They outpitched us. They outhit us.”
Arkansas broke a 2-2 tie by scoring seven runs in the seventh inning. The Razorbacks combined for five consecutive hits against Florida starter Franco Aleman and reliever Jordan Butler, including a pinch-hit, two-run double by Welch and Brady Slavens’ three-run home run.
“We kind of fell apart in the seventh inning,” O’Sullivan said.
Van Horn said Slavens was the first left-handed batter to get a hit off the lefthander Butler this season.
“Lefties were 0 of 12 against him,” Van Horn said.
Slavens also hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning to give Arkansas a 2-0 lead. That home run off Aleman after a Cayden Wallace walk was to the opposite field over the left-field wall.
“I think it kind of shocked them over there in their dugout,” Van Horn said. “It caught them off guard. You’ve got a left-handed hitter that goes oppo, and it was way out. It jumped. It was a no-doubter off the bat.”
Slavens’ home run off Butler was pulled over the right-field fence.
“I was just tying to hit the ball hard, honestly,” said Slavens, who was 0 for 8 in the series’ first two games. “Having struggled … I was just trying to drive in some runs and put the ball in play hard.”
With the SEC championship already clinched, Van Horn gave freshman pitcher Jaxon Wiggins his second start of the season — and first in SEC play — and rested senior Lael Lockhart. He also rested catcher Casey Opitz and started Dylan Leach. He also gave left fielder Ethan Bates his first SEC start.
Wiggins, the first of seven Arkansas pitchers, held the Gators scoreless for three innings. He allowed two hits without a walk and had two strikeouts with 31 strikes on 43 pitches.
“I thought he did a tremendous job,” Van Horn said. “He filled up the strike zone.
“He threw three or four different offspeed pitches and over the plate and got some swings and located his fastball pretty well. I was excited for him. We all were.”
It was Wiggins’ first appearance since giving up a three-run home run to Tennessee’s Max Ferguson in the ninth inning of an 8-7 loss on May 15.
“[Wiggins] had to sit on that home run for a week,” Van Horn said. “I know he was ready to get back out there and move on.”
Kole Ramage threw a scoreless fourth inning for the Razorbacks, then the Gators got a run each off Connor Noland and Heston Tole on RBI groundouts in the fifth and sixth innings.
Zebulon Vermillion and Ryan Costeiu had scoreless innings, then the Gators got a run off Zack Morris in the ninth.
“The bullpen, an inning here, an inning there,” Van Horn said. “For the most part, they all did a nice job for us.”
For a change, the Razorbacks didn’t have to rely on Kevin Kopps — who is 10-0 and has 8 saves.
“Love seeing a bunch of guys get in there that normally don’t get in there,” Slavens said of the pitchers who worked Saturday. “It’s really good to see them succeed.”
It was the fourth time the Razorbacks have swept Florida and first time since 2009. They also swept the Gators in 1999 and 2007.
“The first two games were extremely close, could have gone either way,” Van
Horn said.
“Nail-biters. Whatever you want to call them. One mistake here, one pitch there, one play.”