Recapping an eventful weekend of Master’s action, transfer portal terrors in Tennessee and Arkansas Baseball’s first SEC series L.
Guests: SEC Mike and Doug Bell
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: 4-14-25
Razorbacks coach Dave Van horn after dropping first SEC series of year
ATHENS, Ga. – Powered by Ryder Helfrick’s two-homer game and Wehiwa Aloy’s two-out heroics, No. 1 Arkansas (32-5, 12-3 SEC) staged a dramatic ninth-inning comeback to force extras.
It wasn’t enough to escape Athens with its first series win since 2015, suffering a 7-6 loss in 12 innings against No. 7 Georgia (31-7, 10-5 SEC) Sunday afternoon at Foley Field.
Friday’s loss, which snapped the Razorbacks’ SEC series winning streak at four, handed Arkansas its first weekend series loss of the season.
The Hogs moved to 12-3 through 15 games of league play but matched their best 15-game SEC start for the fourth time in program history, having also accomplished the feat during the 1999, 2010 and 2024 seasons.
Arkansas trailed 5-3 in the top of the ninth inning before Helfrick’s leadoff shot, his second home run of the game, cut the deficit to one.
Georgia retired the next two batters to bring Aloy to the plate, and the Razorback shortstop delivered by cranking the game-tying solo blast to center and evening the ballgame at five apiece in dramatic fashion.
Charles Davalan’s RBI fielder’s choice in the 11th gave the Hogs their only lead of the afternoon, but the Bulldogs would not go away.
Down to their last out with a runner on first in the bottom half of the frame, an RBI double tied the game at six and ended the day for Razorback reliever Aiden Jimenez, who spun 2.2 innings of one-run ball with two strikeouts.
True freshman Cole Gibler took over on the mound with two outs and the winning run on second base, but he induced an inning-ending groundout to second to send the game to the 12th tied at 6-6.
After Arkansas went down in order in the top half of the frame, Georgia clinched the series on a walk-off solo homer with two outs in the bottom of the 12th.
Helfrick (2-for-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI) and Aloy (2-for-6, HR, RBI) each finished with multi-hit games to lead Razorbacks offensively in Sunday’s series finale in Athens.
Landon Beidelschies started on the mound and worked five innings of four-run ball with six strikeouts before turning the game over to the bullpen, which featured strong appearances from Carson Wiggins (2.0 IP, 1 R, 4 SO) and Dylan Carter (1.0 IP, 3 SO) in addition to Jimenez and Gibler’s work in relief.
Up next, Arkansas returns inside the friendly confines of Baum-Walker Stadium for a six-game homestand beginning with a midweek matchup against UAPB on Tuesday.
First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. on SEC Network+.
Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
Razorbacks come close to pulling out win over Georgia, but fall short
ATHENS, Ga. — No. 1 Arkansas nearly overcame a four-run deficit but could not score the game-tying run from third in the ninth in its 7-6 loss against No. 7 Georgia Saturday afternoon at Foley Field.
The loss snapped the Razorbacks’ program-record 12-game SEC win streak and evened the series against the Bulldogs at one game apiece ahead of the weekend finale, which is scheduled for noon Sunday on SEC Network+.
Arkansas will again look to secure its fifth SEC weekend series win of the season and earn its first series win in Athens since 2015.
Georgia jumped out to an early lead after tagging Arkansas starting pitcher Gabe Gaeckle for three runs in the first. The right-hander lasted only two innings, allowing five runs on six hits and a walk with two strikeouts.
The Bulldogs lead 5-1 through the first two innings of play, but the Razorback bullpen would apply the brakes to their hot hitting.
In relief of Gaeckle, who suffered his first loss of the season, Ben Bybee (3.1 IP, 2 R, 5 SO), Christian Foutch (1.2 IP, 5 SO) and Cole Gibler (1.0 IP, 3 SO) combined for six innings of two-run ball with 13 strikeouts and opened the door for the Hogs’ explosive offense to chip away at its multi-run deficit over the game’s remaining frames.
Arkansas did exactly that with a run in the second on Ryder Helfrick’s sixth home run of the season and a run in the third on Logan Maxwell’s RBI groundout to first.
Gabe Fraser, who finished 2-for-3 at the plate and logged his second career multi-hit game, drove in a run in the sixth on his RBI groundout to short, cutting the Razorbacks’ deficit to 6-3.
After Georgia reopened a four-run lead on an RBI double in the bottom half of the sixth, Kuhio Aloy drilled a two-run shot in the top of the eighth to close Arkansas’ gap to 7-5. Kuhio finished 2-for-4 with his 10th home run of the season.
Down a run and down to their final three outs, the Razorbacks had the Bulldogs on the ropes in the ninth.
Wehiwa Aloy drew a leadoff walk before Logan Maxwell singled to first base to put runners at the corners with nobody out.
Wehiwa would scramble home on a wild pitch to cut Arkansas’ deficit to 7-6.
Kendall Diggs, who entered as a pinch runner for Maxwell, advanced to second on the same wild pitch but would ultimately be stranded at third base as the next three Razorback batters went down in order on a pair of groundouts and a game-sealing strikeout.
Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
Special teams coach Scott Fountain on improvement of group in spring practice
From kickers, punters to receivers how he’s putting together a group to get better with consistency from last season.
Hogs down Georgia to keep record streaks going, tying SEC mark
ATHENS, Ga. — Unanimous No. 1 Arkansas (32-3, 12-1 SEC) scored 13 unanswered runs, including seven in the top of the ninth, to pull away from No. 7 Georgia (30-6, 8-5 SEC) and earn a 13-3 series-opening win Friday night at Foley Field.
With the win, the Razorbacks improved to 32-3 overall, marking their most wins through 35 games in program history, and moved to 12-1 in league play, matching their best 13-game SEC start in program history.
Arkansas, which also started 12-1 in SEC play during the 2024 campaign, extended its program-record SEC winning streak to 12 games and can achieve its best 15-game SEC start of either 13-2 or 14-1 with a series win or sweep against Georgia this weekend.
The series-opening win was also Dave Van Horn’s 1,500th career victory in 37 seasons as a college baseball coach.
Van Horn won 214 games at Texarkana CC (1989-93), 51 games at Central Missouri State (1994), 106 games at Northwestern State (1995-97), 214 games at Nebraska (1998-2002) and earned his 915th win at Arkansas (2003-pres.) Friday night.
Georgia landed the game’s first punch, taking an early lead with a three-spot in the bottom of the second.
The Bulldogs tagged Razorback starter Zach Root for three runs on a walk and two hits, including a two-out two-run homer.
It was the only damage Root would allow, however, as the left-hander finished Friday’s outing with seven strikeouts over 5.2 innings of three-run ball.
Arkansas erased its three-run deficit in the top half of the fourth, scratching out three runs on three hits, including Logan Maxwell’s RBI double, Brent Iredale’s RBI single and Kuhio Aloy’s game-tying RBI single.
The Razorbacks and Bulldogs exchanged zeroes over the next two innings, but the game took a turn in the final three frames.
Arkansas grabbed its first lead of the night in the top of the seventh on a one-out RBI triple by Gabe Fraser, who entered as a defensive sub in the bottom of the fifth inning for an injured Nolan Souza.
Fraser’s go-ahead base knock in the seventh put the Hogs ahead 4-3 and jumpstarted a 10-run rally over the game’s final three innings.
Arkansas tacked on two more in the eighth on Wehiwa Aloy’s leadoff solo shot and Kuhio Aloy’s two-out RBI single before breaking the game wide open with seven runs in the top half of the ninth.
Georgia entered the ninth trailing by three but soon faced a 10-run deficit as Arkansas brought 12 batters to the plate and scored seven runs on four hits, three walks, a hit batsman, a wild pitch, a passed ball and an error.
Wehiwa Aloy’s ground-rule double was the biggest blow before consecutive RBI singles from Cam Kozeal, Kuhio Aloy and Ryder Helfrick.
In relief of Root, Aiden Jimenez (2.1 IP, 2 SO), who earned the win to improve to 4-0 on the year, and Dylan Carter (1.0 IP, 2 SO) combined for 3.1 shutout innings with four strikeouts to secure Arkansas’ series-opening 13-3 victory.
Arkansas will go for its fifth SEC weekend series win of the season tomorrow afternoon and look to secure its first series win in Athens since 2015.
First pitch in game two between the Razorbacks and Bulldogs is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday on SEC Network+, with right-hander Gabe Gaeckle (2-0, 5.77 ERA) set to toe the rubber.
Bud Light Morning Rush Podcast: 4-11-25
Breaking down action from the first day of the Masters and previewing Arkansas baseball’s ranked road matchup at Georgia.
Guests: The Fence Man, Lang Wittman, and Aaron Fitt.
Previewing Razorbacks’ road series in Georgia with Bubba Carpenter
Strong start has come from record-type hitting along with some solid performances on the mound from pitchers in league start.
