Hogs turn back Missouri, win series

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Arkansas slugged three home runs and held off Missouri 9-8 Sunday for its second Southeastern Conference series victory of the season.

Senior Cannon Chadwick struck out three over the final two innings, preserving the victory that made Arkansas 20-5 overall and 5-1 in the SEC. Missouri, down 9-3 after seven, scored four runs in the eighth and one in the ninth.

Missouri, which had a 20-game winning streak snapped in the series opener Friday, fell to 21-3 and 4-2.

Leading Arkansas’ 12-hit attack were Dominic Fletcher with a solo home run in the second inning, Grant Koch a three-run shot in the fourth and Carson Shaddy a solo blast in the fifth. Koch has eight homers, tied for the SEC lead, and Arkansas a conference-high 36.

Seven different Razorbacks recorded at least one hit and four had two hits or more. Fletcher belted his sixth homer on a 3-for-4 day.

Redshirt senior Josh Alberius earned his second win in as many appearances, giving up just one earned run over three innings and scattering four hits. Kevin Kopps had four

strikeouts from the middle of the fourth inning until the eighth.

“We’ve had a couple games this year that we haven’t let get away. Last year, those games were gone,” said Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn. “It was like we couldn’t stop the bleeding or slow it down, even with a good lead. We knew (the Tigers) weren’t done over there and we were starting to run out of pitching. … When you’re on the road, a lot of times you don’t get breaks, but we got breaks today.”

“It comes about with having some older guys like me, Bonny (Luke Bonfield) and Chad (Spanberger),” Shaddy said about Arkansas’ ability to finish close games. “We didn’t really have that last year and this year, we do.”

Arkansas plays a single game against Grambling State at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville before a weekend series at Alabama.