Bats come to life against Mississippi State in 14-2 run-rule win

Arkansas took advantage of Mississippi State managing to run fielders into each other twice early, built a big lead and finished a series-clinhing 14-2 win Saturday evening at Dudy Noble Field.

Since you may see fielders run into each other twice for a season, seeing it come in back-to-back innings. It was that kind of night for the Bulldogs.

Brady Tygart’s comeback continued on course. Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn wasn’t going to wear him out too fast and starting for the second outing in a row seems to be working because everybody has a plan. Tygart pitched two innings, didn’t give up a hit, struck out one and walked one, throwing 20 pitches and facing just six batters.

In the second inning, Tygart had to wait 25 minutes between pitches because the Razorbacks gave him a comfortable lead and took awhile to do it. Will McEntire came on in the third and only gave up a massive homer to State’s Dakota Jordan, but nothing really serious.

All of that was big heading into Sunday’s game as Van Horn didn’t have to use up much of an already short pitching staff.

The Hogs sent 10 players to the plate and Bulldogs starter Landon Gartman struggled to get anybody out. A lot of it was he walked Caleb Cali to start the second, then hit Mason Neville after getting one out and walked John Bolton with two outs.

That’s when the parade around the bases started. Kendall delivered a single to score two runs and Gartman walked and Ben McLaughlin delivered another two-run single to give the Hogs a 4-0 lead, taking advantage of four walks.

Neville led off the bottom of the third with a double that nearly got over the left field wall and Peyton Holt followed with a single to make it 5-0. Holt singled and scored on a deep fly to the center field wall by Diggs when the Bulldogs had two outfielders run together and the ball fell between them. That made it 7-0.

Slavens led off the with a walk and scored on an RBI single by Holt to run the score to 8-0.

In the sixth inning, Slavens led off with a homer over the left field wall to make it 9-0. The Hogs scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh for a 14-2 lead and the only drama was whether McEntire could close out the game, letting a pair of Bulldogs get into scoring position with one out. He did.

McEntire finished with five innings, scattering seven hits, but he only walked one Mississippi State batter and that was big. He had some jams, but nothing he couldn’t work out of.

The Razorbacks are now 35-12 on the season, 16-7 in the SEC and can finish out a sweep with a win in Sunday’s game that starts at 1 p.m. and will be on SEC+.