Florida sweeps No. 4 Razorbacks, exposing pitching, hitting woes

Dave Van Horn has built one of the most consistent programs in college baseball at Arkansas. He knows how to fix things.

But after Florida completed a three-game sweep at Baum-Walker Stadium on Sunday, winning the finale 7-6, there’s no sugarcoating what needs fixing and it starts with the pitching staff and an offense that’s gone quiet at the worst possible times.

The Razorbacks fell to 19-10 overall and 4-5 in SEC play, dropping below .500 in conference games for the first time this season.

It’s the first time an SEC opponent has swept Arkansas at home since Alabama did it in 2016, a season that ended without an NCAA Tournament bid.

Outside of that year, no team had swept the Hogs in a three-game home series since South Carolina in 2010.

Van Horn didn’t have many answers on Sunday. Neither did his pitching staff.

Starting pitching has become serious problem

The most pressing issue Van Horn’s got to solve is what’s happening with his starting rotation.

Across all three games of the Florida series, Arkansas starters combined for just 7⅓ innings of work. That’s not a recipe for winning in the SEC, and Sunday was another example of how bad it’s gotten.

Lefty Colin Fisher got the ball for Game 3 and didn’t make it out of the third inning. He lasted just 2⅓ frames and allowed three earned runs before Van Horn had to go to the bullpen.

It’s been a sharp decline for Fisher who went at least five innings in each of his first three starts this season, but he hasn’t completed the fifth inning in four straight appearances since.

His ERA over that four-start stretch has ballooned to 8.10.

Florida left fielder Blake Cyr got to Fisher right away, hitting an RBI single in the first inning to give the Gators an early lead.

After that, it was just a matter of damage control — and Arkansas couldn’t do enough of it.

Tate McGuire came on in relief and promptly gave up back-to-back home runs to Florida shortstop Brendan Lawson and first baseman Ethan Surowiec to lead off the fifth inning.

Those two solo shots pushed the Gators to a 5-2 lead and took the air out of Baum-Walker. Lawson and Surowiec combined to go 8-for-10 on the day and Van Horn’s pitchers had no answer for them.

Ethan McElvain took over later in the game and walked three straight batters in the seventh before working out of the jam.

The bullpen did enough to keep Arkansas close, but the early damage from the starters was too much to overcome.

Walk improvement that came too late

One area that showed some progress Sunday was walk prevention. Arkansas pitchers had issued an alarming 18 walks to Florida across the first two games of the series.

On Sunday, they held the Gators to just three free passes — though all three came in the same seventh-inning sequence with McElvain on the mound.

Still, it didn’t change the bigger picture. Florida sent all nine starters to the plate and every one of them reached base with at least one hit.

The Gators finished with a season-high 17 hits on the day. Van Horn’s pitching staff simply didn’t have enough to slow them down, even with fewer walks in the mix.

Kuhio Krush 💪 pic.twitter.com/WEGchjmwlc

— Arkansas Baseball (@RazorbackBSB) March 29, 2026

Offense isn’t getting job done either

While the pitching’s been the bigger headline, the Razorbacks’ offense has its own issues that Van Horn’s got to work through.

Arkansas managed to keep things interesting Sunday.

They brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh and eighth innings and had the winning run at the plate in the ninth, but the Hogs couldn’t get the big hit when they needed it most.

Kuhio Aloy is a prime example of the offensive inconsistency Van Horn’s dealing with.

Coming into Sunday, Aloy had gone 2-for-his-last-18 at the plate. He did finish 2-for-4 with a home run Sunday — his second since February 22 and his first multi-hit game since March 2 against Stetson — which nudged his season average back to .284.

But he also grounded into a key 5-4-3 double play in the sixth that killed an Arkansas rally, even though a run scored on the play.

Van Horn made a notable lineup change Sunday in an attempt to shake things up.

With Maika Niu scratched from the starting lineup due to illness, he inserted true freshman Carter Rutenbar into the leadoff spot for the first time in his career. The move paid off.

Rutenbar reached base three times on a walk and two singles and forced Florida starter Russell Sandefer to throw him 22 pitches across three plate appearances — more than a quarter of Sandefer’s 83 total pitches on the day.

Ryde’s 8th blast of the season 🚀 pic.twitter.com/GoLythoFtw

— Arkansas Baseball (@RazorbackBSB) March 29, 2026

Helfrick provides bright spot, but it’s not enough

Ryder Helfrick gave Razorback fans something to cheer about in the seventh.

After going just 1-for-10 in the series entering that at-bat, Helfrick connected on a two-run home run off Florida reliever Luke McNeillie to pull Arkansas within one. It was his eighth homer of the season and briefly made things very interesting at Baum-Walker.

Florida answered back in the top of the eighth when second baseman Cade Kurland singled to left to score Lawson and push the lead back to two.

Aloy’s home run in the bottom half made it a one-run game again, setting up a tense final two innings.

The ninth inning came down to one at-bat. After two quick strikeouts to open the frame, Rutenbar singled to extend the game.

Pinch runner TJ Pompey entered for Rutenbar, stole second and advanced to third on a catcher’s error by Florida’s Carson Bowen. The tying run stood 90 feet away with Helfrick at the plate.

Helfrick struck out swinging. The Gators had their sweep.

Florida left 12 men on base throughout the game, giving Arkansas every opportunity to pull off a win.

The Hogs couldn’t take advantage.

What Van Horn has to fix before Auburn

Arkansas doesn’t get much time to regroup.

The Razorbacks head out on a four-game road trip starting Tuesday at Missouri State, with first pitch set for 6 p.m. on ESPN+.

The bigger test comes over the weekend when the Hogs travel to Auburn for another SEC series.

Van Horn’s got real work to do before then.

The starting rotation has to stabilize, the lineup needs more consistent production up and down the order and the Hogs can’t afford to let pitching leads evaporate the way they did all weekend against Florida.

At 4-5 in SEC play, the margin for error is shrinking fast.