FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas’ pitching staff, led by Gage Wood’s career-high nine punchouts, combined for 15 strikeouts and overpowered Texas’ offense for the second night in a row to lead No. 11 Arkansas (39-9, 16-7 SEC) to a 6-1 series-clinching win against No. 1 Texas (38-7, 19-4 SEC) Friday night at Baum-Walker Stadium.
The Razorbacks secured their first weekend series against win the Longhorns since 1989 when the two teams were Southwest Conference foes.
With a win in tomorrow’s series finale to clinch a weekend series sweep, Arkansas, now 16-7 through 23 games of SEC play, can match its best 24-game SEC start (17-7) for the sixth time in program history.
Friday night’s win also marked the Hogs’ 29th victory inside the friendly confines of Baum-Walker Stadium this season.
With one more victory, Arkansas can clinch its seventh 30-win season at Baum-Walker since the venue opened in 1996.
Wood, making his third start back on the mound since returning from injury, set the tone with his four innings of one-run ball and career-high nine strikeouts.
The hard-throwing right-hander limited the Longhorns to just two hits, including a solo homer, and did not issue a walk, securing his first win of the season with his strong outing Friday night.
Arkansas broke through against Texas starter Luke Harrison in the bottom of the second with four runs to take control of the game early.
Brent Iredale led off the inning with a solo home run, his 12th of the season, before Kuhio Aloy cleared the bases with a two-out double to left center, bringing home three runs to extend the Razorbacks’ lead to 4-0.
The Longhorns would answer with a solo home run in the top half of the fourth against Wood, the only damage he suffered during the night, to cut their deficit to three, but the Hogs took advantage of a two-out bases-loaded hit batsman as well as a two-out bases loaded walk in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively, to push their lead to 6-1.
Staked with a lead, the Razorback bullpen held strong. In relief of Wood, Gabe Gaeckle (3.0 IP, 5 SO) and Aiden Jimenez (2.0, 1 SO) combined for five shutout innings with six strikeouts to close out the game and lock down the series win.
With his game-high three RBI, Aloy increased his team-leading RBI count to 63 while moving his season slash line to .363/.436/.626 through 44 games on the year.
Iredale, meanwhile, improved his slash line to .298/.459/.603 with 12 home runs and 53 RBI, both of which are tied for second most on the Razorbacks, through 48 games this season.
Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
