Souza’s sac fly walks off win over Texas Tech, 9-8

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas got exactly what they needed after dropping an SEC series on the road last weekend Tuesday night against Texas Tech. Nolan Souza’s walk-off sacrifice fly in the ninth inning capped a 9-8 comeback win over the Red Raiders at Baum-Walker Stadium.

The Razorbacks extended their home winning streak to 24 games while picking up their second walk-off victory of the season.
Souza came in as a pinch-hitter with the bases loaded and hi sacrifice fly to right field scored Jared Sprague-Lott from third base to walk it off.

“I’m glad Souza got enough of that ball to get it to the outfield,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “Honestly, if the wind wasn’t blowing in it might’ve went out of the park. That thing got up there so high and started coming back.”

Ben Bybee opened up the night with a three up, three down first inning but crumbled in the top of the second. “They jumped on Bybee,” Van Horn said later.

Texas Tech went up early, 2-0. Then the Red Raiders jumped on Bybee. Tech took advantage of four straight singles as Bybee finished the night throwing 1.1 innings while allowing six runs and six hits with two strikeouts on 36 pitches (29 strikes) in his third start of the year. His ERA jumped from 1.00 to 6.10 in a no decision.

Down 7-1 going into the bottom of the fifth, the Razorbacks mounted a six-run rally to tie the game. After Jayson Jones and Will Edmunson worked their way on base to begin the frame, Peyton Holt singled to left field to cut the lead to five. Arkansas scored two more runs to slice the Red Raiders’ lead to 7-4 and Ben McLaughlin launched a two-run home run to left to bring the Hogs within one. Hudson White tied the game against his former team with an RBI double down the third base line to plate Jack Wagner from second.

“Ben McLaughlin had a tremendous at-bat,” Van Horn said. “Went to a full count and caught him with a fastball and just hit it opposite field with that slicing wind. We knew it was gone when it left the bat. That was just a big swing. There were plenty of those. Just proud of our guys. They rallied and just kept going and found a way to win against a team that can really hit. We’ve got our hands full again tomorrow.”

The Red Raiders grabbed the lead back with a solo shot off of Will McEntire on the first pitch of the top of the seventh off the bat of Green for his fourth RBI of the game, 8-7. The Razorbacks tied that game back up in the bottom of the eighth with Peyton Stovall driving in pinch runner Ty Wilmsmeyer from third on a fielder’s choice with one out.

The Hogs and Red Raiders will wrap up the two-game series Wednesday afernoon before Arkansas goes on the road to South Carolina. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. on the SEC Network.