Smith starts, Diggs ends game early with walk-off game winner

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Hagen Smith started it and Kendall Diggs sent everybody out of a cold Baum-Walker early Friday happy.

Diggs, a sophomore from Olathe, Kan., delivered his second walk-off homer in the seventh inning as Arkansas mercy-ruled Eastern Illinois in the series opener Friday afternoon.

Smith had started on the mound and wasn’t as dominating as he was in the College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, Texas, last weekend, but he was good enough.

He lasted 4.2 innings and strick out six, scattering three hits and three walks.

“Today it’s a lot different elements and first home game, probably hyped up a little bit,” Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn said later. “I just didn’t think that he commanded the ball like he can and will. But his stuff was really good.”

Dave Van Horn (Andy Hodges / HitThatLine.com)

Smith came up big in that Friday game against the Texas Longhorns last week. He was solid against the Panthers, but didn’t just dominate.

“Last week everything was working,” Van Horn said,  “as far as throwing strikes and being around the zone.”

By the seventh inning the Hogs were cruising behind Four different Hogs recording multiple hits. Peyton Holt, who got the start at second base in place of an injured Peyton Stovall, led the way with a pair of RBI singles.

Jace Bohrofen reached base four times for Arkansas with a single, two walks, a hit-by-pitch and two stolen bases.

The Hogs basically broke this one op jumped ahead with six runs on five hits in the top of the third. Hudson Polk was hit by the first pitch he saw before John Bolton and Tavian Josenberger reached with bunt singles.

Diggs worked a walk to load the bases, and Jared Wegner and Brady Slavens followed with singles to make it 4-0. Ben McLaughlin plated another run when he grounded into a double play with the bases loaded, and Peyton Holt, who made his first start as a Hog at second base, roped a single to left to make it 6-0.

By the seventh innings, the Hogs still needed three runs to invoke that new run-rule in place everywhere and Diggs delivered a three-run homer on a day when Arkansas piled up 11 hits in the win.