Tye & Clay on the win over A&M, baseball staying undefeated, best grills to buy and more!
Because Van Horn plans for May in February, Hogs play in June
Arkansas is on a roll with 10 straight wins to start this season and don’t fall for any of the negative nannies saying it’s not against SEC teams.
What it does show is Dave Van Horn and how he works his program.
“It’s not like we just sat here and played a bunch of mid-majors and got after ’em,” he said after Sunday’s 6-0 win over Murray State that capped a weekend series where the Hogs trailed in the first three games until late. “We had to fight for wins.”
Not Sunday. On the third day of a weekend series, it usually gets interesting because pitching gets deep into the roster.
That’s going to usually work in Arkansas’ favor because of how Van Horn has put this team together.
And he works his ways combining praise and being able to get their attention when that’s the best course of action.
“You look at what’s going on around the country, mid-majors are beating the big schools all the time,” Van Horn said Sunday. “To beat who we’ve beaten, I’m real proud of the guys — I told ’em that — for showing up every day and getting after it.”
To be honest, about the only thing Van Horn hasn’t gotten is a national title. If he had a pile of those, the Razorbacks’ baseball program would be along the lines of Alabama in football.
Oh, don’t think we’re saying the Hogs are going to run the table the rest of the season. You can’t compare football and baseball by the number of losses.
Nobody does that in college baseball and in a sport where there is a legitimate way to win a championship without anybody’s opinion mattering, Van Horn consistently has the Hogs in the mix.
He knows he doesn’t have to win every game … but he wants to and you get the idea this team does, too, and it’s what he likes about it.
Van Horn has blended a roster in a year filled with covid distractions, uncertainty and more changes than he wants to deal with, he has somehow made it work to his advantage.
The guess here is we’re going to see a year with some really, really good baseball being played across the college baseball landscape at the highest levels.
A lot of players that would be trying to climb their way out of the minor leagues are playing another year at the collegiate level. Arkansas has a couple of those guys like Casey Opitz, who would have been gone after last season in a normal year.
Van Horn also brought in transfers from other programs that is starting to pay off. Lael Lockhart was the Friday starter at Houston last year and his getting five solid innings to start things Sunday was big.
“Lael did a good job,” Van Horn said later. “He had a couple innings where he cruised pretty fast. But he also had a couple where he had to fight a little bit. He made a couple of mistakes on pitches when he was ahead in the count and gave up some hits that maybe shouldn’t have happened or if they were gonna happen they needed to be later in the count after he threw maybe a chase pitch or two.”
And he made it through without Van Horn having to stroll to the mound to take him out. He let him figure out how to get out of a couple of jams.
“He knows what he did,” Van Horn said. “What he did was work out of it. He did a tremendous job again working out of a couple of small jams.
“The fifth inning was getting a little bit dicey there but he got a strikeout that got us in the dugout and finished up his day.”
It has appeared finding a Sunday starter was the last piece of the pitching rotation that has Peyton Pallette starting on Friday, then Caleb Bolden on Saturday.
Lockhart may be the leader just less than two weeks away from the SEC opener against Alabama.
That’s always been the most critical day of the season. It was Norm DeBriyn that explained one time Sunday was when you could either sweep a team, avoid getting swept, win or lose a weekend series.
It adds up by the time you get to May.
Which is what Van Horn starts thinking about before Valentine’s Day every year and it’s why the Hogs are usually still playing in June.
Razorbacks stay perfect with Sunday shutout win
10-0.
No. 1 Arkansas completed the series sweep against Murray State on Sunday afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium, shutting out the Racers, 6-0, to continue a perfect start to the 2021 season.
The Razorbacks are undefeated through their first 10 games of the season for the second time in the Dave Van Horn era (2003) and for only the third time in program history (1996).
The Hogs have won 14 straight games dating back to the final four contests of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Arkansas won a program-record 18 games in a row to begin the 1996 campaign.
Starter Lael Lockhart set the tone early for the Hogs. The lefty struck out two in the top of the first and never looked back, finishing his day with six strikeouts in five scoreless innings of work.
The graduate transfer from Houston allowed five hits and walked only one in the outing. He now owns a 2.77 ERA in 13 innings this season and has racked up 19 strikeouts along the way.
Lockhart’s dominance on the mound was backed by the Razorback bats from the get-go. Right fielder Brady Slavens drove in a run on his sacrifice fly to right in the bottom of the first, giving Arkansas an early lead.
One run was ultimately all the Hogs needed, but there were plenty more to come.
Third baseman Jacob Nesbit returned to the starting lineup and made his presence felt immediately. The Coppell, Texas, native launched a three-run homer to left in the fourth to put the Razorbacks ahead by four.
Two more runs came across in the bottom of the fifth on sac flies from first baseman Cullen Smith and shortstop Jalen Battles. Lockhart’s day was done after five as the bullpen took over the game with a 6-0 lead.
It was pure filth from Ryan Costeiu, Evan Gray, Kevin Kopps and Zack Morris, who combined to close out the final four innings of the game.
Together, the foursome silenced Murray State and allowed only one hit while striking out five.
Offensively, second baseman Robert Moore continued to rake. The preseason All-American notched his fifth multi-hit game of the season and is now slashing .375/.458/.625 on the year.
Arkansas hits the road next weekend, heading to Ruston, La., for three games against Louisiana Tech. Game one of the series gets started at 6 p.m. Friday
Van Horn pleased team stays unbeaten with series sweep
Arkansas shut out Murray State on Sunday evening, 6-0, to finish a sweep and stay undefeated, which Dave Van Horn likes considering it’s been against good teams.
Lockhart on solid five innings shutting out Murray State
Hogs’ pitcher Lael Lockhart (5 innings, 6 strikeouts, 1 walk, 0 runs) on his performance in sweep-clinching 6-0 win over Racers.
Nesbit makes first hit of season big one with three-run homer
Hogs’ Jacob Nesbit talked with the media about his home run in the fourth that broke open a 6-0 win in the final part of a sweep over Murray State.
Moody’s defense (plus 28 points) leads Hogs win over Texas A&M
For the second straight game, Moses Moody tied his season high with 28 points.
However, it was his blocked shot on a Texas A&M dunk attempt with the game tied and 1:49 left to play that led Arkansas to an 87-80 victory over Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon at Bud Walton Arena.
The win closes the regular season for both programs and the Razorbacks improve to 21-5 overall, 13-4 in the SEC.
The win was the 11th in a row in SEC play for the Razorbacks, the best streak in the SEC this season and ties the 1993-94 national championship team for most consecutive league wins. The 1994-95 team also won its final 11 SEC games that season. Texas A&M fell to 8-9 overall, 2-8 in the SEC.
Moody made a career-high five 3-pointers (5-of-8) with two assists, two steals and the crucial block.
Graduate senior Jalen Tate and freshman Davonte Davis also made key plays down the stretch to lead to the win.
Down two (71-69) with 4:58 left, Arkansas outscored the Aggies 18-9 down the stretch.
However, Texas A&M was up one, 76-74, with two minutes left. Justin Smith got an offensive rebound and put-back to tie the game. On the ensuing possession, Moody had his blocked shot.
Then Arkansas, on an apparent old-fashion 3-point opportunity, had a call reversed after review changing a block to a charge to give the Aggies the ball. Savion Flagg capitalized with a put-back to give his team the lead, 78-76, with 1:13 left.
Undaunted, Moody drained a 3-pointer to put his team up one, 79-78, a lead the Hogs would not relinquish.
Texas A&M called a timeout once crossing half-court with 48 ticks left. On the inbounds play. Davis tipped the pass.
Tate corralled the loose ball and tipped the ball back to Davis. Davis then threw the ball ahead for a Justin Smith dunk and a 3-point lead.
A&M had a good look at 3-pointer in the right corner but missed. JD Notae came down with the rebound, was fouled and he sank both free throws for a five-point cushion.
Emanuel Miller was fouled with 14 seconds left and he made both free throws. Notae was once again fouled and made both to put the Hogs back up by five. Davis then sealed the game with a steal and a dunk.
Tate finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Davis had 12 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals. Smith, who played all 40 minutes, added 11 points.
Miller and Quentin Jackson each scored 23 points for the Aggies with Miller adding 10 rebounds.
Arkansas will be the #2 seed at next week’s SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn. The Razorbacks receive a double-bye and will not play until the quarterfinal round on Friday at 6 pm.
Moody looking forward to tourney time after comeback over A&M
When the Hogs were down by 14 to Texas A&M, Moses Moody said it was looking like it could get ugly, then they whittled it down quickly.
Musselman says Hogs played as well as they had to for win
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said later the Hogs didn’t play particularly well, but figured out what they had to do to down A&M, 87-80.
Hogs bomb four homers for fifth time for 15th straight win
Hitting four home runs, the No. 20 Arkansas softball team coasted to its 15th straight win overpowering Northwestern State, 13-2 in six innings, at Bogle Park on Saturday afternoon.
Entering the day, the Razorbacks (15-2) led the SEC with 41 home runs and registered their fifth game with at least four bombs this season.
Infielder Danielle Gibson continued her otherworldly week at the plate hitting two more dingers, which included a grand slam, and registered RBI.
For the week, she hit .421 (8-for-19) with five home runs (two grand slams), two doubles and drove in 14 runs.
How it happened
Gibson hit the first of her two bombs in the first inning, spanking a solo shot to center that sparked an eight hit day for the bats.
The Razorbacks blew the game open in the second and scored five two out runs, pushing their lead to 6-0.
Outfielder Keely Huffine and infielder Hannah Gammill each lifted RBI base hits down the left field line and both scored on infielder Braxton Burnside’s three-run tater. Burnside has 11 bombs in just 18 games played this season.
Arkansas added seven more in the bottom of the fourth to move ahead, 13-0, as Burnside drew a bases loaded walk, allowing Gibson to smash her second grand slam of the weekend to center.
Pinch hitter Lauren Graves hit her first career jack, driving in two to cap off Arkansas’ scoring.
Mary Haff (9-1) hummed along inside the circle and faced one over the minimum in her 4.0 innings. She allowed a two out single up the middle in the second and struck out six.
Haff lowered her season ERA to just 0.87 in 56.1 innings pitched. Freshman Kaitlyn Howard made her collegiate pitching debut in the top of the fifth and allowed two earned runs on four hits.
Jensen Howell (3-3) took the loss for Northwestern State (6-6), surrendering six earned runs in 1.2 innings.
Batting from the leadoff spot, Gammill went 2-for-3 and increased her weekly batting average to .500 (5-for-10).
With two outs, the Razorbacks hit .667 (6-for-9) as a team and scored eight of their 13 runs.
Arkansas finished the week outscoring its Wooo Pig Classic competition, 46-17.
The Razorbacks travel to Central Arkansas for a 6 p.m. first pitch on Tuesday.
The game will air on CST and ESPN+. Later in the week, Arkansas opens SEC play at South Carolina with a three-game set Friday, March 12 through Sunday, March 14.
Tate on bouncing back from bad game for big finish against A&M
Razorbacks senior Jalen Tate (22 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists) had his worst game against the Gamecocks, but finished season strong.
