Arkansas hands Van Horn his 900th victory with a 12-3 rout of Ole Miss

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

Just as it does in Hawaii and Montreal, Aloha means goodbye in Oxford.

Canadian Charles Davalan and Hawaiian-born brothers Wehiwa and Kuhio Aloy hit back-to-back-to back home runs in an eight-run fifth inning as Arkansas slugged five total while racing past Ole Miss 12-3 on Saturday night.

“We feel like we’re explosive and we can do that type of stuff,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “ It was really good to have it happen when it did because we’re on the road, we’re into SEC play and we’re just coming off a loss, so it was huge.

The victory doubled as Van Horn’s 900th win at Arkansas (17-2, 1-1), but he was having trouble putting that in context right after the contest in his 23rd season at the helm of the Razorbacks.

“…I don’t know,” Van Horn said. “I know that we have one win in the SEC this year. That’s the main thing.

“I say it every time something like this comes about. I just appreciate having the opportunity to be here and I appreciate coaching all these great players and hanging out with a bunch of good coaches. It’s a good number. Hopefully we can keep building on it a little bit.”

Arkansas lost to Ole Miss 10-6 on Friday afternoon, bombed away again in the ninth with Logan Maxwell and Nolan Souza, the third Hawaiian native on its roster, both hitting towering solo bombs back-to-back in the ninth.

“I felt a lot that the hitters were really frustrated because they felt like we were seeing the ball well, we just never really put together that inning yesterday and then today we felt like we should have scored more runs a couple of times,” Van Horn said.

Arkansas had a 15-4 hit advantage on Saturday over Ole Miss (15-3, 1-1) with Rebel Luke Hill having held of this team’s hits.

“You have just got to shower well, show up ready to play and stick with your routine,” Hill said.

“I feel like the SEC is the hardest conference in baseball that that is what it is all about. You are going to get kicked and you are going to be get beat up some days and you have just got to show up tomorrow, stick to your routine and everything that has gotten you here.

“That’s all that you can do and control the things that you can control man we will be in a good spot to win baseball games.”

The Razorback trailed 2-1 before sending 12 batters to the plate in the fifth frame, scoring the eight runs via seven hits, a dropped fly ball and a hit batter.

Arkansas did so against three Ole Miss pitchers – starter Riley Maddox (3-2) and relievers Will McCausland and Ryne Rodriguez.

Montreal native Davalan’s blast was a two-run shot that put his team up 3-2 while the Aloy brother both hit solo dingers.

Davalan was 4 of 6 in the game.

“Davalan hit the home run to give us the lead and then the next pitch was just jolted to center field and then the next pitch was an absolute rocket that got out of here,” Van Horn said. “I didn’t think it had enough height.

“It was just a lot of excitement in the dugout because all of a sudden, two minutes earlier we were down a run and now all of a sudden we’re up three or four runs.

“I really liked the way we continued the inning. A lot of times you hit three homers in a row and you just scored four runs, the inning kind of slows down and we ended up scoring four more.

“I think we scored seven runs before they got us out. So it was very emotional in the dugout. Guys were excited.

Ole Miss had taken a 2-1 lead against Arkansas starter Gabe Gaeckle in an inning that could have been much worse.

Gaeckle fanned Ole Miss lead off hitter Hayden Federico, but he reached base when strike three got way from catcher Ryder Helfrick.

The Rebels loaded the bases and plated two runs when Ryan Moerman was hit and then another when Gaeckle threw a wild pitch.

But he then got one of his career-high matching eight strikeouts and thew a double play grounder to escape further damage.

“Well, he’s a competitor,” Van Horn said. “ He was planning on having a really good outing for us tonight. He knew we were in need of it after the way it went down yesterday. He did (have) a good outing.

“He was frustrated, but he flipped the switch and just did a tremendous job. That’s been in there, he’s got that in him.

“You think about some of the time when he was — last year he was closing games, we were bringing him in some really, really tough situations and you have to be tough to be able to handle that, really tough mentally.

Gaeckle would end up going four innings with Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco acknowledging afterwards the Rebels missed an opportunity to put up more.

“There is a lot of things that you look at in a game like this, look at a lot of disappointments,” Bianco said. “I just said that to the team.

“But as disappointing as that was, there are times when you have the opportunity and they open the door that you have to run through it.

“We did that last night, but we didn’t do that tonight, especially in the first. But the other thing and perhaps more disappointing to me than the first was not just letting them off the hook, but what we didn’t do after that.

“We were just a zero at the plate after that. To strike out 18 times, and again I don’t want to take respect any from their staff, but that is just a bad night at the plate.

“I just thought offensively we weren’t really good after that. The guy on the mound us throwing it 98, and he is an SEC starter, but we have a chance to get people out, too.

“But after that we just let them settle in and really didn’t sniff it after that.”

Arkansas relievers Parker Coil and Oregon State transfer Aiden Jiminez handled the mound duties from that point on.

Coil (1-0) allowed his first earned run of the season in 11 innings.

Despite the lopsided score, Jiminez got a save because he pitched three innings to close out the game.

Jiminez fanned six and did not allow a hit or run.

“He’s been a strike thrower,” Van Horn said. “He’s only one year, like 12 months, maybe 13 months, out of Tommy John surgery and he’s throwing the ball in the low-90s with sink and command.

“The command’s the thing and he’s throwing a cutter, his fastball’s kind of a heavy ball. Yeah, it was fun to watch him pitch…You’d have to think that really helped his confidence and I know us as coaches, it helps us to put him out there in tough situations.

“Tonight wasn’t super stressful, but he still had to get these guys out and they showed they can score quick and he did a great job.”

Arkansas will send arguably its most consistent starter this season to the mind on Sunday when Landon Beidelschies gets the nod.

Beidelschies (3-0, 2.37 ERA) will be opposed by Ole Miss starter Mason Nichols (1-0, 4.20

“It just wasn’t our night,” Hill said, “It wasn’t our night and he (Bianco) just had to straight up tell us that. There is no reason, no explanation that I think anyone can say.”

“…His message was just come out tomorrow and be ready and be ready and be who you are,” Hill said. “We believe we are a better baseball team than them. We believe that if we do the things we need to do that we will come out and put up a good fight tomorrow.”

Photo courtesy of Ole Miss athletics