• Box Score (PDF)

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The offense came out swinging Sunday for Arkansas, scoring nine runs on 12 hits with three home runs to defeat Missouri, 9-8, and win its second conference series in a row.

The Hogs had a 9-3 lead going into the eighth inning, but Missouri came back to score four runs in the eighth and one run in the ninth to cut the lead to one. Senior pitcher Cannon Chadwick was able to hold off the Tigers just enough, striking out three over the final two innings including the final batter.

Arkansas is now 20-5 on the year and 5-1 in Southeastern Conference play with the win. It’s the quickest the Razorbacks have reached the 20-win plateau since the 2012 team did it in 22 games. Missouri falls to 21-3 overall and 4-2 in conference play.

Dominic Fletcher, Grant Koch, and Carson Shaddy each provided the power with a home run in the game, while Koch came away with the high RBI total after a three-run home run in the fourth inning. Fletcher had a solo home run in the second inning, which got the scoring going. Shaddy’s long ball came later as the lone run in the fifth.

With their home runs today, all three Razorbacks continue to lead the team with six home runs or more. Koch leads all Hogs with eight homers on the year and is now tied for the SEC lead.

Sunday’s game was the fourth time this year that Arkansas hit three or more home runs in the same game. The Hogs now have 36 home runs on the year, which also leads the league.

It wasn’t just Fletcher, Koch, and Shaddy that provided the offense for Arkansas. Seven different players recorded at least one hit in the game and four recorded two hits or more. Fletcher led all players with a 3-for-4 day at the plate including his sixth homer of the year.

Redshirt senior Josh Alberius earned his second win in as many appearances, giving up just one earned run over three innings and scattering four hits. Kevin Kopps came in to pitch in the middle of the fourth inning an no-hit the Tigers until the eighth, racking up four strikeouts in the process.

Moments That Mattered
Missouri opened the scoring with a single run in the first, but Arkansas had a great response in the next half inning by putting up a three-spot starting with the solo home run by Fletcher. The Hogs followed with three straight hits to bring another run home, forcing Missouri to pull its starter in just the second inning.

Jake Arledge and Chad Spanberger started another rally in the fourth with back-to-back singles, then Luke Bonfield reached on an error to bring a run home. Koch followed with his eighth home run of the year to break the game open and make it 7-1 Razorbacks. It was Koch’s third three-run home run this year and Arkansas’ second home run of the game.

Arkansas looked to be on its way to a comfortable victory after taking a 9-3 lead into the eighth inning, but Missouri started to chip away at the lead, scoring four to cut it to 9-7. After Kopps gave up a lead-off double to Brett Bond and then a single to Alex Samples, head coach Dave Van Horn decided to go to the bullpen and bring in Chadwick.

Chadwick hadn’t given up a hit or a walk in four straight appearances before Sunday’s game, but Missouri was able to work two walks and take advantage of a wild pitch that allowed two runs to score.

Missouri still trailed by two going into the bottom of the ninth, but Chadwick brought his best stuff when it mattered even after another run came home to make it 9-8. The senior got two quick outs to start the frame, but the Tigers scratched across another run after a walk, single, and a wild pitch. Chadwick settled down and struck out Connor Brumfield looking with a runner stranded on second.

Razorback Quotables
“We’ve had a couple games this year that we haven’t let get away. Last year, those games were gone. It was like we couldn’t stop the bleeding or slow it down, even with a good lead. We knew they (Missouri) weren’t done over there and we were starting to run out of pitching and recycle some guys, it’s interesting. The game cane turn on one pitch here or there. When you’re on the road, a lot of times you don’t get breaks, but we got breaks today.” – Head coach Dave Van Horn on his team being able to close out games compared to last year

“We don’t play for one run all the time. We’ll bunt sometimes or hit and run, but we try to hit the ball in the gap. We had three home runs today and I don’t know how many we have on the year, but it’s a good amount. We’ve been able to produce some big innings.” – Head coach Dave Van Horn on his team’s offensive production

“The biggest difference is, mainly, attitude. When things go south like they did in the last two innings today, you just have to believe in yourself and that’s what we were preaching the whole time. It comes about with having some older guys like me, Bonny (Luke Bonfield), and Chad (Spanberger). We didn’t really have that last year and this year, we do.” – Carson Shaddy on Arkansas’ ability to finish tough games

Up Next
The Razorbacks return home for a single midweek game against Grambling State on Wednesday at Baum Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on SEC Network+. The game can also be heard on the Razorback Sports Network with Phil Elson calling the action.

• Box Score (PDF)

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Arkansas and Missouri battled through some bad weather Saturday afternoon at Taylor Stadium.

Both teams were in a 1-1 stalemate after five innings, but the Tigers scored six runs during a rainy sixth from three home runs, which led to giving the Hogs their first conference loss of the year, 7-2, evening up the three-game series.

Five of Missouri’s six runs in the sixth came off the home run, as the Tigers clubbed three long balls in the game, two off Arkansas starting pitcher Trevor Stephan. The junior’s outing started out like many of his previous starts as he had just given up the one run in the first and held Missouri to just three hits through the first five innings.

Heavy rain began to fall at the beginning of the sixth inning, but play never stopped. The weather coupled with the two Tiger home runs were Stephan’s undoing. He finished with 5.1 innings pitched, four earned runs allowed, one walk, and 10 strikeouts.

Saturday’s game was his second outing this year with 10 or more strikeouts, the other being his career-high 13-strikeout performance against Rhode Island, but the four earned runs were also season high.

Kacey Murphy and Jake Reindl came out of the the bullpen to pitch the remainder of the game starting in the sixth inning. Murphy faced four batters and gave up three earned runs including a home run. Reindl relieved him in the same inning.

Reindl did a great job at keeping the deficit from increasing as he struck out four over 2.2 innings and allowed just two hits. It was his longest outing of the year and the four strikeouts was a career-high.

As for the offense, Arkansas finished with eight hits as a team, five coming from the bats of juniors Luke Bonfield and Carson Shaddy.

Bonfield went 3-for-3 at the plate with a run scored, while Shaddy went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Bonfield continues to lead the team with 10 multi-hit games this season. Saturday’s game was his third three-hit game of the year, which leads all Razorbacks.

Junior Chad Spanberger slugged his fourth home run of the year in the top of the third inning tying the game at 1-1. Spanberger has been strong at the plate as of late. After going 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI today, Spanberger has recorded back-to-back multi-hit games and has six multi-hit games this year. In his last seven games, he is hitting .276 with three home runs and 10 RBIs.

Down 7-1, the Hogs tried to mount a rally in the top of the eighth inning, getting an RBI double from Shaddy, his second straight game with a two-bagger. Unfortunately, Missouri reliever T.J. Sikkema closed out the final four innings for the Tigers, picking up his fifth win of the year.

Up Next
Arkansas and Missouri will play the rubber match of this series on Sunday with first pitch slated for 1 p.m. at Taylor Stadium. Right-hander Josh Alberius will take the mound for the Razorbacks and Andy Toelken will pitch for Missouri.

The game will be broadcast online only on SEC Network+. It can also be heard on the Razorback Sports Network with Phil Elson on the call.

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas made easy work of Mississippi State on Sunday at Baum Stadium earning a 6-1 victory in front of 7,828 fans and the three-game sweep to open Southeastern Conference play.

The win marks the first three-game sweep for Arkansas in a SEC opening series since 2012 when the Razorback took three-straight from Alabama in Fayetteville.

It’s also the first three-game conference sweep since last year when Arkansas won all three games against Auburn (March 25-27, 2016).

It was also Arkansas’ first sweep of Mississippi State since 2010 when the Hogs won all three games in Starkville, Miss., by a combined score of 29-11.

The Hogs got production up and down their lineup all game forcing the Bulldogs to their bullpen in the third inning. Carson Shaddy, Jordan McFarland, and Jax Biggers all recorded two-hit games.

Shaddy unloaded his fifth home run of the year in the seventh inning adding to an already big Arkansas lead. Shaddy now joins Grant Koch and Dominic Fletcher as the three Razorbacks with five or more home runs this year.

Redshirt senior Josh Alberius had his best start of the year, going four strong innings and not allowing a run to earn his first victory in four tries.

Mississippi State did get five hits off the righty, but Alberius only walked one and struck out three, while only three runners reached second base.

Senior Dominic Taccolini closed out the game, garnering the four-inning save after giving up just one hit, a solo home run to Brent Rooker in the sixth.

Other than the long ball, Taccolini was spotless, walking just a single batter and striking out a game-high five Bulldogs.

Moments That Mattered
Unlike its previous two games in the series, Arkansas scored early, putting up three runs on three hits in the third inning. Instead of using the home run ball to take the lead, the Razorbacks strung together three singles from Eric Cole, Jax Biggers, and Shaddy.

Mississippi State went to the bullpen for the first time after the Biggers single and a walk to Jake Arledge loaded the bases. Even with the change, Arkansas still got a run home on a sacrifice fly from Chad Spanberger. Two batters later, Biggers scored on a passed ball, followed by the RBI single from Shaddy.

Spanberger’s bat has warmed up in the last week. Even without recording a hit in Sunday’s contest, the junior has four hits and six RBIs in his last four games, including home runs against Alcorn State and yesterday against Mississippi State.

The Razorbacks went on to add single runs in the fourth, sixth, and seventh innings, while the Bulldogs never had an answer. When Taccolini came in to pitch in the sixth inning, the Rooker homer in the sixth and his walk in the ninth were the only Bulldog baserunners for the rest of the game. Including Sunday’s appearance, Taccolini has struck out four or more batters when he has pitched three or more innings.

Razorback Quotables
“We thought if we get it to a certain point we could bring Dominic (Taccolini) in and let him go. It was really good to see that. It was good for the team but good for Dominic, personally. Just happy for him and happy for the team and just happy with the way we played on a Sunday. We haven’t played very good the past two Sundays. We challenged them on that last night. Come out and give us your best game on Sunday, and today we just played a lot of baseball. We didn’t play homerun derby. We got some big two-out hits and it was just a really well-played game by everybody.” — Coach Dave Van Horn on Dominic Taccolini and the performance of the team

“It feels great. I would be lying to you if I said I wasn’t excited about it. It’s three of thirty (games). That’s what we talk about. You just enjoy it for a few hours and then you slowly move on to the next game. We’ll start working on them tomorrow. Monday’s a day off and they need to relax. It’s a great feeling knowing we won the series last night, but the challenge was, can we come out and play on a Sunday.” — Van Horn on sweeping Mississippi State

“Getting the sweep is huge. You look back at your first weekend and there’s three wins that you can sit on for a while. Mississippi State’s a good team, they’ve got some injuries but we’re really excited we came away with these three wins. It’s huge. We’re glad to get a good start.”— Carson Shaddy on the SEC opening series sweep

“We’ve all three been here and we’ve all played in SEC series. We just wanted to come out and show the young guys that the intensity does come up. I think the older guys took it to heart that we weren’t playing very well on Sunday’s and we just came out here and emptied the tank.” — Shaddy on ending the series on a strong note

“They have some of the best hitters in the country on that team. You just have to pitch to them low in the zone. You can’t try and do too much. We came with that game plan today. We came into this game with a pretty solid game plan and it worked.” – Josh Alberius on why Arkansas had so much success against MSU hitters

Up Next
Arkansas will play a single game on Wednesday at Baum Stadium to close out its 11-game homestand against New Orleans. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. and will be broadcast on SEC Network+. The game can also be heard on the radio on the Razorback Sports Network.