Arkansas quarterback Ty Storey said the offense didn’t do that badly, considering they were simply focusing on the basic things.
Morris recapping Saturday’s Red-White game in Little Rock
Arkansas coach Chad Morris talked about the fans that showed up in Little Rock for the Red-White game and quick impressions.
Harris, Hogs appreciate fans that showed up for spring game
Hogs linebacker Scoota Harris said the team wasn’t surprised by the bad weather Saturday morning and how the defense has progressed during spring drills.
Kelley on defense’s play making plays against Hogs’ offense
Quarterback Cole Kelley talked with the media and recapped the offense’s efforts, plus how the defense is improving after the Red-White game Saturday in Little Rock.
Ramsey on big day from new position in Red-White game
Arkansas defensive end Randy Ramsey talked after the Red-White game about his day where he record three tackles, including two sacks for minus-14 yards.
Pettway on QB battle between Kelley, Storey this spring
Arkansas wide receiver La’Michael Pettway had six catches for 91 yards in the Red-White game on Saturday and talked about the quarterback battle.
Whaley glad to be back playing games, even spring game
Arkansas running back Devwah Whaley had 62 yards on just eight carries in the Red-White game in Little Rock and said it felt good to play a game again.
Razorbacks drop road match at No. 7 Mississippi State
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Arkansas fell on the road Saturday to No. 7 Mississippi State in the final regular season road match.
State took a 1-0 lead, claiming the doubles point with wins on courts two and three. No. 88 duo Oscar Mesquida and Adam Sanjurjo led Mississippi State’s 46th-ranked duo 5-4 at the clinch.
In singles, the only bright spot was 38th-ranked Jose Salazar, who defeated No. 4 Nuno Borges in a third-set tiebreak 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 1-0 (10-8). Salazar has won six of his last seven matches overall, defeating five ranked opponents, including two top-10 players in the country.
Mississippi State won the other five courts in two sets.
Next for the Razorbacks are the Auburn Tigers. Arkansas will head to Auburn on Sunday for its last regular season road match, as the Hogs and Tigers will begin at 1 p.m. CT.
No. 7 Mississippi State 6, Arkansas 1
Singles Results – Order of finish (4,3,2,6,5,1)
1. #38 Jose Salazar (AR) def. #4 Nuno Borges (MS) 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 1-0 (10-8)
2. #23 Giovanni Oradini (MS) def. Adam Sanjurjo (AR) 6-2, 6-2
3. #83 Strahinja Rakic (MS) def. Oscar Mesquida (AR) 6-0, 6-4
4. Niclas Braun (MS) def. Josh Howard-Tripp (AR) 6-0, 6-2
5. Florian Broska (MS) def. Pedro Alonso (AR) 6-3, 7-5
6. Arvid Nordquist (MS) def. Jose Alonso (AR) 6-2, 6-2
Doubles Results – Order of finish (2,3)
1. #46 Nuno Borges/Strahinja Rakic (MS) vs. #88 Oscar Mesquida/Adam Sanjurjo (AR) 4-5, unfinished
2. #42 Niclas Braun/Giovanni Oradini (MS) def. Pedro Alonso/Jose Salazar (AR) 6-2
3. Florian Broska/Trevor Foshey (MS) def. Josh Howard-Tripp/Alex Reco (AR) 6-1
Knight, Hogs win pitcher’s duel in first game of series
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas continued its great play this season when pitcher Blaine Knight takes the mound as they won a pitcher’s duel with Auburn, 2-1, Friday night at Baum Stadium.
As expected, the Knight-Casey Mize matchup played out as it was billed with both aces combining for 13 strikeouts and two walks.
Both pitchers also worked six or more innings in the game before giving way to the bullpens.
For the fourth week in a row, Knight came out on top, earning his sixth victory of the year on a third-consecutive quality start.
He went 6.1 innings and gave up just the one earned run in the fourth, a home run, but he struck out six and walked only one.
Just like Knight, closer Matt Cronin was lights out in a series opener, as he threw a perfect final 2.2 innings with one strikeout to earn his sixth save of the year and fifth in his last seven appearances.
In each of his saves this year, he’s thrown more than one inning, while allowing a run to cross only once.
Mize, who came in as, arguably, the SEC’s best pitcher, was just as effective, going seven innings and scattering seven hits with two earned runs allowed and seven strikeouts on 107 pitches.
Luckily, the Hogs were able to scratch across two runs in the bottom of the fourth, one being a solo home run from Luke Bonfield.
Bonfield’s solo blast came after Mize had only allowed three baserunners into the fourth inning. He took an 0-2 pitch the opposite way and deposited his fifth home run of the year into the visitor’s bullpen, tying the game at 1-1.
Bonfield finished the game 1-for-4 with the lone run scored and RBI.
Earlier in the inning, Auburn had taken a 1-0 lead on an Edouard Julien solo home run, his seventh of the year. It was the only extra-base hit Knight allowed in his 6.1 innings of work.
The win also ups Arkansas’ home record this season to 17-2. As a team, the Razorbacks are hitting .345 in games played at Baum Stadium with 39 home runs hit, while the pitching staff has a combined 2.53 ERA and a .227 opposing batting average.
All seven of Arkansas’ hits Friday night came off of Mize during his seven innings. Jax Biggers, Casey Martin, Bonfield, Dominic Fletcher, Grant Koch, Jordan McFarland, and Carson Shaddy each had one hit in the game. No one was able to tally more than one hit.
After Bonfield’s homer, the Razorbacks were able to score one more after Fletcher doubled in the next at-bat and then was brought in on an RBI single by Koch.
Koch finished the game with one walk to go with his RBI single. It was the first walk Mize had allowed in 30.1 innings, including all of conference play.
Coming in, freshman outfielder Heston Kjerstad had a team-best 14-game hitting streak, but it was snapped Friday night as the Amarillo, Texas native went 0-for-4 at the plate.
Over the past four weeks in conference series openers, Arkansas’ offense has come up clutch against what is usually the opposing team’s ace.
In those games, as a team, the Hogs have scored 23 runs and are hitting .298. On the flip side, Knight has done his job as Arkansas’ ace, compiling a 3.04 ERA with three wins in four starts.
Razorback Quotables
“He’s been huge. Anytime you can get off to a 1-0 start on the weekend, you’re pretty confident. We’ve been there on our fourth weekend in a row now, but we’ve only won one series. There’s so much more work to do and that’s what we talked about. It’s nice but, the whole plan is to win two on the weekend and that’s what we’re shooting for at a minimum.” — Coach Dave Van Horn on the importance of having Blaine Knight pitch well in series openers
“It was pretty much what we thought it was going to be. It was going to be a tight game. I think I threw that score out, 2-1, 3-2, to our players yesterday at practice. It was more about us having to beat a good pitcher but, we have to remember we have to beat a good team. It’s not just about the pitchers. They have good hitters and they play good defense, they know how to win. They fought us and they had some good at-bats.” — Van Horn on the 2-1 win over Auburn
“When facing a guy like that, we knew he was going to be tough for our team. We just stuck with the approach and were able to get a couple runs off him. There’s a reason why he’s projected to be the number one pick in the draft this year. When we face guys like Blaine (Knight) and Isaiah (Campbell) and all those types of pitchers, it puts us in a good position to do well against a guy like that.” — Luke Bonfield on facing Casey Mize
“I did have motivation. I wasn’t going to get hit like that again and I know the team didn’t want to lose like that again. We came out with an edge and a chip on our shoulder and we got the job done.” — Blaine Knight on being motivated to face Auburn again after losing to it last year
Up Next
Game two between the Razorbacks and the Tigers is set for Saturday back at Baum Stadium with first pitch at 6 p.m.
The game will be televised online on SEC Network+.
Van Horn talks about opening-series win over Auburn
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn knows the series with Auburn is not over and told team they’ve got two more left against the Tigers after 2-1 win to open series Friday night.
Hogs’ seventh-inning rally comes up short at South Carolina
Senior Autumn Buczek registered the RBI single in the seventh. Tori Cooper and Kayla Green each had two hits in the game.
With the setback, the Razorbacks drop to 28-7 overall and 5-5 in SEC play.
Up Next
Due to rain in Saturday’s forecast, the series will conclude with a doubleheader Sunday. First pitch of the twin bill is set for 12 p.m. with the series finale to follow.
Arkansas’ next home game is Friday, April 13 for the opener of its three-game set with No. 15 Alabama.
After a quiet first inning for both teams, the Razorbacks put together a two-out threat in the second.
Green singled to left for the first hit of the game for either team. Cooper followed with a double down the line in right to put two in scoring position but SC starter Cayla Drotar got a strikeout to end the Razorbacks’ scoring chance.
Arkansas’ next threat came in the top of the fourth inning, once again with Green at the plate and two outs. The freshman catcher knocked a triple off the wall in right field and stood at third with the first three-base hit of her career.
Cooper grounded a ball to deep shortstop and on a close play at first, was called out to strand the runner at third.
Making her 16th start of the year, Autumn Storms allowed just one walk through the first three frames before South Carolina (32-6, 7-3 SEC) loaded the bases with three-consecutive hits to start the bottom of the fourth.
With the help of a 1-2-3 double play and an outfield assist from Cooper, Storms limited the damage to one run on an RBI single by Jana Johns.
The home team added an unearned run in the fifth inning to push its lead to two.
Freshman Mary Haff worked 1.2 innings of relief and tallied four strikeouts to keep the Razorbacks within striking distance.
Cooper started the rally with a one-out infield single and after a base hit by A.J. Belans, Arkansas had runners on first and second.
Buczek poked a two-out single through the infield to plate pinch runner Sydney Parr from second and cut the deficit in half.
But the home team secured the series opener with a ground ball to second for the final out.
