Hogs avoid Hoover sweep — and how
HOOVER, Ala. — Arkansas not only stayed alive in the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament, the Razorbacks made history.
Junior Chad Spanberger hit three home runs and three Razorback pitchers combined for a seven-inning no-hitter to defeat Auburn 12-0 Thursday night at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. Fourth-seeded Arkansas moved on to a Friday-night rematch against No. 5 seed Mississippi State, which beat the Hogs 4-3 Thursday and lost to top seed Florida earlier Friday.
Spanberger’s three home runs and the combined no-hitter were unprecedented in the SEC tournament. Spanberger homered in his three at-bats, helping jump-start the Hogs to a 7-0 lead in the fourth. He and Grant Koch (March 4 against Nebraska in the Frisco Classic) are the only Razorbacks to hit a grand slam this season.
Spanberger’s seven RBI were a tournament record and easily his career high. Going back to the final regular-season series at Texas A&M, Spanberger’s base hits have been home runs. He has five homers in his last 12 at-bats, giving him 17 for the year and 61 RBI.
Spanberger was the 10th Razorback to hit three homers in a game and the first since Brett Eibner in the 2010 Fayetteville Regional against Grambling State.
“The first game got away from us,” said Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn, “unlike this ballgame where we seemed to take charge early. Mostly because Chad hit a solo homer in the first, a tworun homer in the third and with that we were off and running. (Spanberger’s) grand slam in the fourth put us in pretty good shape, giving us the opportunity to save some pitching and relax a little bit.”
Even while allowing five walks, Razorback pitchers Dominic Taccolini, Matt Cronin and Josh Alberius did not give up a hit through seven innings, after which the tournament’s 10-run mercy rule went into effect.
It was Arkansas’ 13th no-hitter in school history and first since Feb. 11,
2006, when Nick Schmidt, Brian McLelland and Devin Collis combined for a 3-0 victory over Oklahoma State. It’s also the first no-hitter for the Razorbacks against an SEC opponent since
1994 when Todd Abbott went a full nine innings for a 6-0 win over Vanderbilt.
Taccolini worked the first two innings, giving up four walks. Cronin took over in the third with Arkansas leading
3-0 after two Spanberger homers. Cronin worked three strong innings, ending up with the victory, his third of the year, after recording a season-high six strikeouts to three walks.
In addition, Arkansas sophomore Jax Biggers tied the tournament and school record of two triples in a game. He and Luke Bonfield are the only Razorbacks with 20 or more multi-hit games this year.
“It puts great confidence in this team,” Spanberger said. “But it wasn’t just me; it was great pitching that also helped us play great today.”