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Hogs take advantage of wind, ’Horns’ blunders in win
Behind Kacey Murphy’s pitching and a strong northwest wind pushing a foul ball into a homer, Arkansas got a rip-roaring win over Texas on Tuesday night.
Texas threw the ball all over Baum Stadium on Tuesday night.
Arkansas hit the ball all over the park.
That worked out well for the Razorbacks in a 13-4 win that really wasn’t that close and Casey Martin’s three-run homer in the fifth was typical of the night.
He jumped on an 0-2 pitch and launched a rocket that looked for all the world like if it didn’t land in the bleachers it was going to be caught down the line for an out.
“I thought there was no chance it was going to be fair,” rightfielder Eric Cole said later, who had a pretty good view from the on-deck circle.
Somehow, it came down and just nicked the foul pole on the way down, which counts as a free trip around the bases.
“It was a northwest wind,” Dave Van Horn said later, actually trying to play it straight. “When it’s like that, you see the ball drift back into the field of play.”
That’s when even he couldn’t keep acting like it was normal.
“You know I’m part weather man,” he said, joking about his constant weather analysis, which sorta backfired this past weekend against Kent State when they played two on Friday expecting rain that didn’t come until very late Saturday. “It clipped the foul pole.”
It was that kind of night for both teams. The Hogs were hitting the ball, taking advantage of that northwest wind van Horn mentioned.
“You know, Casey has hit the foul pole about three times,” Cole said. That has to be some sort of record if such things were kept.
Texas wasn’t doing anything well, except for a couple of home runs. The Texas pitching staff walked five batters in the first three innings and also committed two costly errors on the same play in the third that helped contribute to the big inning.
The Razorbacks totaled 13 hits and only left seven men on base.
Four different Hogs had multi-hit games on Tuesday. Cole led all hitters as he went 3-for-5 while tying a career-high three RBIs.
Oh, and Kacey Murphy did a great job on the mound, too.
“Murphy gave us what we wanted,” Van Horn said. “He didn’t walk anybody and got us off to a good start throwing the ball over the plate.”
Sophomore Jordan McFarland continued to swing the hot bat as he knocked in four RBIs, including a bases-loaded double in the third that contributed to the seven-run frame.
He was virtually untouchable for much of the game with the exception of two solo home runs given up in the fourth and fifth innings. Over the first three innings, Texas only managed two base runners, neither reaching third base.
Murphy picked up his second win of the year, throwing six strong innings and holding Texas to just two earned runs, both being home runs. It’s the second outing this year that he’s worked six innings and the first time this year he didn’t walk a batter.
“We told him at the beginning of the year that he would pitch some on Tuesdays, maybe out of the pen on the weekend and maybe start some on the weekend,” Van Horn said. “He said, ‘Hey, whatever, I just want to win.’ That’s what we want.”
That’s what he got Tuesday night and it paid off big.
Along with that northwest wind, too.
“Pretty amazing,” Van Horn said with a smile.
The second game of the series will be Wednesday with first pitch set for 4 p.m.
Arkansas will start freshman lefthander Hunter Milligan, but get there early if you want to see him. Van Horn said it will be a day to work the staff looking at the weekend SEC conference-opening series against Kentucky.
