Arkansas blanks Florida 7-0 and looks to win series Sunday in Gainesville

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

Great pitching travels and that’s just what happened for the Arkansas baseball program on Saturday in Gainesville, Fla.

The Razorback trio of Gage Wood, Gabe Gaeckle and Aiden Jimenez combined on a five-hit shutout while fanning 10 as visiting No. 5 Arkansas blanked Florida 7-0.

The Razorbacks (37-8, 14-6), who broke open a scoreless game with six runs in the fifth, shutout the Gators (29-17, 7-13) for the first time in 76 games between the two teams.


It evened the series after Florida’s 6-4 victory in the opener and Arkansas will now looking to win Sunday at noon and take its first series in Gainesville since 2012.

“Yeah, just a really good bounce back win after last night,” Van Horn said. “We were frustrated after the game and felt like we kind of let it slip away.

“Then today, made all the plays, turned a couple double plays, great relay play at the plate, stole a couple bases, put together a great inning in the fifth with a little bit of their help. We took advantage of a couple errors.”

It was indeed a scoreless game until the fifth inning when the Razorbacks batted around and plated six runs on three hits, three of the Gators’ four errors, a hit batter and two walks.

Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan did not recognize his team’s defense.

Arkansas scored all six of its runs after a Gators’ error occurred on what was a potential double play ball.

“It certainly did (hurt) and unfortunately we made three of our four errors in one inning,” O’Sullivan said. “That kind of shifted the whole game.

“Obviously their pitching was very good today, but certainly I can’t remember a game this year where we have made four errors in a game. And surely not three errors in one inning.

“…“At this time of year, you just can’t play sloppy. And you can’t afford, especially in terms of situation we are in, play sloppy defense and we did.

“That is the most surprising part because we hav been playing pretty clean defense the entire year.”

Arkansas took advantage of the fifth-inning miscues via Kuhio Aloy’s two-run single, Carson Boles’ sacrifice fly, Brent Iredale’s RBI ground rule double and pinch hitter Cam Kozeal’s two-run homer.

Wood started and gave Arkansas three innings while allowing one hit, fanning five and not walking anyone while throwing 41 pitches.

It was his second stint on the mound after returning from an injury and came 8 days after a rough 1 /3 of an inning appearance against Texas A&M.

“Well, he had a really good bullpen is what I was told by (Arkansas) pitching) Coach (Matt) Hobbs yesterday,” Van Horn said. “Felt like he would be. I felt like he had great stuff last week, he just didn’t have the breaking ball and obviously he didn’t command this fastball quite as well.

“But today it was fun to watch. Three innings of high-octane carry fastball and a good breaking ball.”

Van Horn said he was not tempted to leave Wood in longer.

“No, we were getting him out,” Van Horn said. “As a matter of fact, that was his last hitter. If he didn’t get that last hitter, we were going to the pen. 35 would have been ideal.

“I think he ended up throwing 42, so that was right where we wanted him. Hopefully he gained a lot of confidence.

“Coach Hobbs and I talked about it’s kind of like a basketball player that’s been out. He starts seeing the ball go through the hoop, gain a little bit of confidence. He definitely did that today.”

Wood agreed with that assessment.

“I got outs this week,” Wood joked. “ Last week, I didn’t get outs.

“….Yeah, it’s more just health reasons right now that I’m on a pitch count and building back up. You can’t just go out there and throw 100 pitches after not seeing a hitter for eight weeks but I’m feeling good. Ready to just keep progressing throughout the weekends.”

Gaeckle (4-1) followed Wood in and pitched 3 1/3 innings in which he allowed one hit, fanned two and walked four.

“Didn’t have his best stuff, didn’t command his fastball,” Van Horn said. “Had a good breaking ball. Kind of just battled through it.

“I think he was a little disappointed in himself, but I told him ‘you’re never going to great all the time,’ but he was just good enough and, you know, it is what it is. Hopefully next week when we play Texas he’ll be even better.”

Jimenez entered in the seventh, threw a double play ball and went on close things out while allowing three hits and fanning a trio.

“Just a strike-thrower with heavy sink and a good cutter,” Van Horn said. “He did get a strikeout and I looked up on the board and it said 96. It looked like it came out of his hand pretty good.

“I would say he’s been better, but his stuff’s really good. Yeah, I mean, he came in and did exactly what we needed him to do, and that’s finish the game.”

Van Horn decided that he didn’t want to overwork Jimenez, who missed last season at Oregon State with an injury.

“We had a lead but we got him up and down two or three times,” Van Horn said. “We just felt like we can’t try to save him for tomorrow, let’s just let it go and let him finish this game and get ready for next weekend and let some of the other guys do it tomorrow.”

The two teams will decide the series with a noon CST game on Sunday that will be streamed on SEC Network +.

Landon Beidelschies (4-0, 4.06) is slated to begin on the mound for Arkansas while Florida has not announced a starter.

O’Sullivan saw at least one bright spot in the loss.

“I’m obviously disappointed in that, but I just told the team that we threw six freshmen (pitchers) today and held them to seven hits and three earned runs.

“…So we have all of our older guys with ready to go tomorrow, the guys with experience, and obviously tomorrow is a very important game for us.

“ I told them, just to be vey honest with them, that we need a signature series win. And certainly playing Arkansas gives us that opportunity tomorrow and we need to be ready to play.

“…It is a very important game for us and all you can do is just be honest with your players and tell them the importance of tomorrow’s game.”

Photo courtesy of Razorbacks Communications