What he’s working on with summer plans and where he feels he can contribute most in first season with Razorbacks’ coach John Calipari.
Dietz delivers the outing Razorbacks needed most in Auburn upset
AUBURN, Ala. — For five straight games the Razorbacks couldn’t get a result like this.
On Friday night at Plainsman Park, left-hander Hunter Dietz gave them exactly what they’d been missing.
Dietz worked 7 dominant innings against one of the SEC’s hottest offenses, striking out 11 without issuing a single walk and allowing just 1 earned run on 6 hits.
His career-high 106-pitch effort carried Arkansas to a 3-2 victory over Auburn and snapped a five-game losing streak that had threatened to derail the Razorbacks’ season.
Arkansas improved to 20-12 overall and 5-6 in SEC play.
The win also snapped a five-game skid in conference games and set up a rubber match Saturday at Plainsman Park at 2 p.m.
The Tigers entered Friday at 21-9 and tied with Arkansas at 5-6 in the SEC.
They didn’t score after the second inning.
Dietz Controls the Game Early
Auburn scratched across runs in each of the first two innings, and for a moment it looked like another long night ahead for the Hogs.
A throwing error by catcher Ryder Helfrick in the first helped the Tigers plate their opening run when Bristol Carter stole second and scored on Chris Rembert’s RBI single.
Auburn pushed the lead to 2-0 in the second when Eric Guevara led off with a double and scored on Ethin Bingaman’s RBI single.
Then Dietz took over.
He navigated traffic in the third, fourth and fifth innings, including stranding leadoff runners in the second and fourth.
In the seventh, Mason McCraine singled, stole second and reached third — and Dietz still wouldn’t crack. He got Bristol Carter to ground out to shortstop on his final pitch to end the inning and his night.
Dietz and left-handed closer Ethan McElvain combined to retire the Tigers’ final eight batters.
Auburn stranded 5 runners on the night and didn’t score after the second inning against a duo that simply refused to give an inch.
Helfrick Provides the Offense
Dietz’s effort would’ve meant nothing without Helfrick’s bat, and the junior catcher delivered twice.
Helfrick’s solo home run in the sixth inning cut Auburn’s lead to 2-1. Facing No. 1 Auburn starter Jake Marciano, he failed on a first-pitch bunt attempt before unloading on a 2-1 breaking pitch, sending it 401 feet to left field and over the 37-foot War Eagle Wall.
Then in the eighth, with closer Jett Johnston on the mound, Nolan Souza reached on a 1-out opposite-field single. Helfrick worked the count, laid off a 1-2 slider and jumped on a 2-2 fastball left over the plate. His 398-foot shot to center field gave Arkansas a 3-2 lead it never surrendered.
Marciano was otherwise excellent for Auburn, allowing 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out 8 in 7 innings.
He retired 11 of 12 batters at one stretch after Arkansas threatened in the second inning when Rutenbar singled,
Maika Niu walked and Zack Stewart added a 1-out single. Helfrick’s sixth-inning homer was the breakthrough the Razorbacks needed against him.
McElvain Finishes It
With Dietz’s night done after 7, McElvain took the ball and made it look easy.
The left-hander retired every batter he faced in his 2-inning save, his first as a Razorback, throwing 17 of 22 pitches for strikes and striking out one.
He and Dietz combined to hold Auburn scoreless over the final seven innings of the ballgame.
Both teams finished with 6 hits and 1 error. The Hogs left 4 runners on base to Auburn’s 5.
For a team that’d dropped five straight, Friday night looked and felt different.
And it started with Dietz taking the ball and not letting go.
479 Equipment Ruscin & Zach podcast April 3
Arkansas baseball loses its fifth in a row.
Former Razorback Richard Smith comes by to give Zach ducks.
We play a spirited version of Cook Colton.
BetSaracen’s Neal Atkinson on favorites at NCAA Final Four this weekend
The action doesn’t stop just because Razorbacks knocked out in Sweet 16 and good chance Hogs have played team in title game.
Former Razorbacks pitcher James Teague on problems with Hogs’ baseball
As staff struggles to figure out how to get people out on occasion, what an ex-pitcher sees in Dave Van Horn’s struggles figuring things out.
Best of Arkansas’ Andrew Hutchinson on problems with Razorback baseball
With another loss to open series against Auburn, Hutch not ready to throw in the towel on the entire season, but having really questions.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: 4-3-26
Recapping Arkansas loss to Auburn on the Plains. Final Four predictions, looking at the SEC football landscape.
Guests: Fence Man & Andrew Hutchinson
Grant Hall on making yet another Masters, seeing former Razorbacks
Since 1981 has attended all but two Maste’s golf tournaments in Augusta, Ga., plus his take on struggles with Arkansas baseball.
Auburn’s 7-run fifth inning sends struggling Razorbacks to fifth straight loss
Apparently pitching’s still a problem for Arkansas. It’s been that way for a while now and Thursday night at Auburn, it cost the Razorbacks again — badly.
For the fifth straight game they couldn’t get anybody out. The offense didn’t help much, either.
The 16th-ranked Hogs walked into Plainsman Park against the SEC’s lowest-scoring team through three weeks of conference play and they left on the wrong end of a 10-2 beatdown.
The 11th-ranked Tigers didn’t just win the series opener. They sent a message, busting loose for a seven-run fifth inning that turned a one-run game into a blowout.
Game two of the series is set for Friday at 6 p.m.
Arkansas dropped to 19-12 overall and 4-6 in the SEC. The Hogs haven’t lost five games in a row since 2020, and Thursday’s result made it five straight.
Auburn, meanwhile, snapped a four-game skid of its own, improving to 21-8 and 5-5 in league play.
Gaeckle struggles, Gibler can’t stop bleeding
Starting right-hander Gabe Gaeckle didn’t make it out of the fifth inning, and the damage he left behind was considerable.
The inning started with the game knotted at 1-1 and Gaeckle walking Bristol Carter to lead off. Carter moved up on a passed ball, and Chase Fralick’s RBI double to right-center gave Auburn a 2-1 edge.
Chris Rembert then walked on Gaeckle’s 88th and final pitch after a full count. It was a telling sign of how the outing had gone — Gaeckle ran a three-ball count on 10 of the 21 batters he faced.
Left-hander Cole Gibler came in to stop the bleeding, but it didn’t work out that way. Bub Terrell singled to load the bases before Eric Guevara’s RBI single pushed every runner up 90 feet.
Eddie Madrigal struck out for the inning’s first out, but then Ethin Bingaman and Mason McCraine each laced consecutive two-run singles, and just like that, Auburn led 7-1.
Coach Dave Van Horn pulled Gibler at that point after just 20 pitches — a decision that should keep the lefty available later in the weekend.
Brandon McCraine, Mason’s older brother, greeted reliever Steele Eaves with an RBI single on the first pitch he saw, scoring Mason and capping the seven-run frame. Arkansas trailed 8-1, and the game was effectively over.
Gaeckle’s final line: four-plus innings, four runs, six hits, four walks and three strikeouts on 88 pitches. He threw just 46 of them for strikes.
Alvarez keeps Razorbacks off balance
Auburn’s Andreas Alvarez didn’t have an easy night on paper, but he made it look that way against the Razorbacks.
Typically the Tigers’ midweek starter, Alvarez was held back specifically for Thursday’s start to keep Auburn’s weekend rotation on normal rest.
It was his first SEC appearance of the season, and he delivered — six innings, one run, six hits, two walks and 10 strikeouts on 105 pitches.
He threw 69 of those for strikes and kept mixing in off-speed pitches to keep Arkansas hitters guessing all night.
Helfrick’s power streak continues
The Razorbacks’ lone bright spot Thursday came in the fourth inning when Ryder Helfrick launched a 374-foot home run to right field.
It was his 10th homer of the season, best on the team, and his fifth in a seven-game stretch. That shot put Arkansas ahead 1-0 and briefly made things look promising.
Auburn answered right away. Terrell led off the bottom of the fourth with a double, and Guevara and Madrigal both walked to load the bases with nobody out.
Bingaman’s sacrifice fly to left tied it at 1-1, though Gaeckle kept it from getting worse by stranding runners at second and third when Mason McCraine struck out looking and Brandon McCraine grounded out to shortstop.
The reprieve was short-lived.
Hit totals tell a concerning story
Auburn finished with 13 hits Thursday. That’s the third straight game an opponent has hit double digits against the Hogs.
Florida had 17 hits in a 7-6 win to close out a sweep last weekend. Missouri State had 14 hits in a 15-14, ten-inning victory Tuesday. Arkansas has allowed 44 hits over its last three games.
Guevara added a 384-foot home run to right-center off Luke Cornelison in the sixth to push the lead to 9-1.
In the eighth against Carson Brumbaugh, Carter scored on Rembert’s RBI double. Rembert tried to score on Terrell’s flyout, but center fielder Maika Niu gunned him down — a run that, if it had scored, would’ve triggered the run rule and ended the game early.
Arkansas got one more in the ninth when Carter Rutenbar and Nolan Souza hit back-to-back doubles against Auburn reliever LJ Cormier.
The Hogs finished with 10 hits but stranded 10 runners, a combination that’s hard to overcome against anyone.
The Razorbacks’ pitching needs answers, and they need them fast. Friday’s game is another chance to stop the slide — but Auburn’s feeling good right now, and Arkansas hasn’t found a way to slow anybody down lately.
479 Equipment Ruscin & Zach podcast April 2
We are covering plumbinb issues aboard the Aretemis II.
Baseball has a possible make or break series this weekend in Auburn.
Springdale has a new monument we have adopted as our own.
The loudest people are not experts on anything.
