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Freshman Turner’s walk-off homer sends Razorbacks past Ole Miss in series finale
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Nolan Souza worked an 8-pitch at-bat to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday, drew a single and set the table.
What followed made 9,891 fans at Baum-Walker Stadium forget everything that came before it.
Christian Turner, a freshman who hadn’t logged much time in the Arkansas lineup, stepped in against Ole Miss left-hander Walker Hooks and saw seven pitches.
The last one he hit 410 feet to right-center field for a 2-run walk-off home run, giving the 22nd-ranked Razorbacks a 5-4 victory over 18th-ranked Ole Miss and a 2-1 series win to boot.
The win moved Arkansas into a tie for sixth place in the SEC standings with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
The Rebels, who’d entered the weekend tied with the Hogs in the conference standings, dropped to 12-12 in SEC play and a tie for ninth.
The Razorbacks improved to 13-11 in league play and 32-17 overall.
Turner faced Hooks, who’d thrown 23 pitches the day on Saturday, and fouled off pitches until he got one he could punish.
Souza’s presence on first base, courtesy of that grinding 8-pitch leadoff at-bat, meant Turner’s drive ended the game on the spot.
Lead that kept changing hands
Arkansas got on the board first in the bottom of the first inning. Damian Ruiz led off with a single, stole second and came home on Kuhio Aloy’s RBI single to give the Hogs a 1-0 edge.
Ole Miss didn’t take long to flip the scoreboard. In the top of the second, Owen Paino hit a fly ball to left field off Arkansas starter Gabe Gaeckle that looked routine off the bat.
It wasn’t.
Wind blowing out to the only favorable part of Baum-Walker carried it 323 feet into the seats and the Rebels took a 2-1 lead they’d build on from there.
Gaeckle got through 4 innings total, allowing 3 runs — 2 earned — on 5 hits with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts on 74 pitches.
It was his first start since April 2 at Auburn and coach Dave Van Horn confirmed after the game he’ll stay in the rotation for next weekend’s series against 14th-ranked Oklahoma.
Ole Miss right-hander Taylor Rabe kept Arkansas at bay through five innings, surrendering 2 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks while punching out 7.
The Razorbacks began cutting into the deficit with the long ball. Zack Stewart hit a wind-aided 339-foot solo shot to left in the fifth off Rabe to make it 3-2.
Then Aloy went deep in the sixth — this time 469 feet to left against reliever JP Robertson — to knot the game at 3-3.
Parker Coil took over on the mound for Arkansas after Gaeckle and was sharp, throwing 3 scoreless innings with 3 strikeouts and 1 walk to keep the Hogs in it.
Ole Miss grabbed lead back briefly
Hooks had already shown he could be tough when needed.
In the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded, he struck out Camden Kozeal and Maika Niu on back-to-back pitches to strand the runners and keep Ole Miss ahead.
Then, in the top of the eighth, Judd Utermark gave the Rebels a cushion nobody thought would disappear so fast.
He led off with a 416-foot home run to center field off closer Ethan McElvain, pushing the Ole Miss lead to 4-3.
The Rebels were six outs from stealing the series.
McElvain didn’t let it unravel further. He allowed 1 run and 2 hits total across 2 innings with 2 strikeouts and earned his fourth win of the season when Turner’s walk-off made the final score official.
Hooks suffered his first loss of the season after allowing 2 runs, 2 hits and 1 walk with 3 strikeouts across 2-plus innings.
Turner’s moment, Arkansas’ series
The Razorbacks needed someone to step up in the ninth and got it from the freshman who hadn’t been counted among the team’s household names.
Turner’s 410-foot drive off the seventh pitch he saw from Hooks did what none of the inning’s other possibilities could.
It ended the game in one swing.
With two weeks left in the regular season, the Hogs now own a tie for sixth in the SEC standings and have next weekend’s home series against 14th-ranked Oklahoma circled on the calendar.
Gaeckle is expected to start in that series after Van Horn kept him in the rotation following Sunday’s performance.
After the final out, kids took the field at Baum-Walker to run the bases.
They were tracing the same path a freshman had just made count for everything.
Razorbacks burned by five-run first again, now it comes down to Sunday
Arkansas’ troubles in the early innings continued Saturday afternoon and this time the hole was too deep to escape.
A five-run first inning sent the 22nd-ranked Razorbacks into a deficit they never seriously threatened to erase, as 18th-ranked Ole Miss rolled to an 11-4 victory in front of 10,491 fans at Baum-Walker Stadium.
The loss evened the SEC series at one game apiece and set up a rubber match Sunday at 2 p.m. on SEC Network.
It was a familiar and painful script for Arkansas, which has now surrendered multi-run first innings in back-to-back games.
“We couldn’t string anything together,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said.
Ole Miss designated hitter Collin Reuter delivered the knockout blow just 16 pitches into the game, hitting a wind-aided grand slam 348 feet to left field on the very first pitch after an RBI single had given the Rebels a 1-0 lead.
Just like that, the Razorbacks (31-17, 12-11 SEC) were chasing a 5-0 deficit before most of the crowd had settled in.
Townsend Controls the Zone
Staring down a five-run deficit is tough enough. Doing it against Cade Townsend made it feel insurmountable.
The Ole Miss sophomore right-hander came in with a 2.42 ERA over 52 innings this season and he looked every bit that sharp Saturday.
Townsend worked 5 2/3 innings, allowing just two runs on four hits with one walk and five strikeouts on 91 pitches.
The Razorbacks worked deep counts against him throughout the afternoon, but he came out on top in those battles more often than not.
“He was just throwing multiple pitches around the zone for strikes,” Arkansas shortstop Camden Kozeal said. “He wasn’t throwing the fastball as much as we thought he might do, especially against a couple of our guys.”
Van Horn acknowledged the obvious challenge of climbing back into a game against a pitcher of Townsend’s caliber.
“When you’ve got a guy like Townsend on the mound that hasn’t given up anything really this year, it’s hard to climb back in the game,” Van Horn said. “He didn’t let us.”
Townsend wasn’t lifted until he walked Kozeal without a strike in the sixth inning. By then, the Rebels led 7-2 and any realistic hope for a Razorback comeback had long since faded.
Hogs Rely on the Long Ball
Every Arkansas run Saturday came via the home run, which underscored just how little sustained offense the Hogs were able to generate.
Maika Niu delivered the biggest blow, a two-run shot 419 feet to left field in the sixth inning off Townsend that cut the deficit to 7-2. Kuhio Aloy followed with a solo homer 372 feet to left in the seventh — his second home run in as many games — and Kozeal went deep 397 feet to left-center in the eighth.
But stringing together baserunners? That remained an issue. Arkansas loaded the bases against Townsend and reliever Hudson Calhoun in the bottom of the sixth only to come away empty when Damian Ruiz grounded into a fielder’s choice.
“We had the bases loaded and we had a hitter get jammed first pitch with a nice cutter,” Van Horn said.
Gibler Eats Innings, Saves Bullpen
With the game slipping away early, Arkansas starter Cole Gibler did what he could to protect the bullpen ahead of Sunday’s decisive game. The right-hander threw a career-high 95 pitches across 5 1/3 innings, surrendering seven runs on nine hits with a walk and a career-best nine strikeouts.
It wasn’t pretty, but Van Horn found genuine value in Gibler’s durability.
“That was the positive of the day was that once we were down that far early, with them having Townsend on the mound, that Gibler stayed out there for 95 pitches,” Van Horn said, “and … pitched pretty well and gave us an opportunity to maybe climb back in the game, which we didn’t do, but we didn’t have to burn some of our guys.”
Tate McGuire followed with 2 2/3 innings of two-run ball and Jackson Kircher closed out the ninth, allowing two runs while throwing 24 pitches. Neither situation was high-leverage enough to warrant deploying Van Horn’s most trusted arms.
Razorbacks Keep Aces in Reserve
That strategic conservation could pay significant dividends Sunday. Pitchers Gabe Gaeckle, Ethan McElvain, Parker Coil and Steele Eaves have yet to appear in the series, giving the Hogs a deep and rested arsenal for a winner-take-all Game 3.
“Those guys gave us an opportunity to save some guys that we’ve used in more leverage-type situations,” Van Horn said, “so hopefully we’ll bounce back and play better tomorrow.”
The Razorbacks will need exactly that kind of performance to take the series. Ole Miss came into Saturday’s game having dropped four straight but looked nothing like a struggling team.
The first inning set the tone and the Rebels never let Arkansas get close enough to shift the momentum.
The series rubber match tips off Sunday at 2 p.m. and airs on SEC Network with both clubs sitting at 12-11 in league play.
