Diamond Hogs take advantage of Missouri gifts in 21-3 rout of Tigers on Saturday

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – On a day when the weather was far from perfect, the Diamond Hogs put up a football score-like victory Baum-Walker Stadium

No. 2 Arkansas used 14 hits, 14 walks and 4 hit batters to rout Missouri 21-3 in a run-rule, seven-inning game on a cold and windy Saturday afternoon.

Cam Kozeal had four hits, five RBIs and three runs scored while starting Zach Root (5-1) fanned seven and allowed three runs on three hits in five innings in the victory.

“Oh geez,” Kozeal said. “ It kind of felt more like duck-hunting weather than it did baseball weather. The wind, it was just misting. For a second, I thought they put new grass on the field because it was yellow in some places, but that was just the tarp.

“You just have to deal with it. We knew it was going to be that way, so you could kind of mentally prepare for that in that way. It was still fun to play.”

The Razorbacks (28-3, 9-1) won despite what Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn finished up his press conference before the day’s results were all in.

He was proud of the run total, but noted it came without everyone hitting up and down the line up.

“We need to get some guys rolling, but we’ve got enough to put together some good innings if you’ll take a walk, which we did like 13 or 14 times,” Van Horn said. “ Got hit by a pitch, I don’t know, another couple, three or four times, and that’s how you score 21 runs on 14 hits. It’s a good win for us, but we’ve got two more to go.”

It came in a game that was postponed from Friday and ahead of a Sunday doubleheader between the two teams that begins at 1 p.m. and will feature two 7-inning games.

“It wasn’t ideal weather,” Van Horn said. “I thought the grounds crew did a great job giving us an opportunity to play.

“…Well, the grass was really wet. The ball would roll through it. Infielders were having to deal with throwing a wet ball across the diamond.

“Same with the outfielders, if it got there on the ground. It was misting the whole time. It was almost like we were in a cloud, but it was the same for both teams. We did a good job of handling the ball, and it definitely helped us.”

After Saturday’s action, Texas leads the SEC race with a 10-1 league mark, while Arkansas is 9-1, LSU 10-2, Tennessee 9-3 and Georgia 8-3.

Texas A&M swept a doubleheader from visiting No. 1 Tennessee by a combined score of 26-9.

Kozeal said his team has to put Saturday’s lopsided win behind it.

“Three touchdowns and held them to a field goal,” Kozeal said. “You got to wipe it clean. It’s kind of like the Nick Saban 24 hour rule. You only get to think about it if it was good or bad for 24 hours. You wake up it’s a new day, that’s kind of how we have to treat it.”

Missouri Coach Kerrick Jackson was understandably upset with the loss by the Tigers (11-17, 0-10).

“Hopefully they will get their minds right,” Jackson said of his team. “I have tried to say everything that I can say and obviously I have to keep trying. Maybe something is going to click for them.

“But when you are at this level, we shouldn’t have to motivate you to play the game that you love to play and you should go out and play well.”

Missouri starting pitcher Kaden Jacobi (2-4) gave up 8 runs on 8 hits and 4 walks in 3 2/3 innings and was the first of six Tigers that pitched on Saturday.

The visitors also made two errors while remaining winless in SEC games.

“We are still searching for the ability to play clean baseball and that means throw strikes, have quality at bats and play good defense,” Jackson said. “Those are things that we we are all in control of and as soon as we can control those things, we will put ourselves in better position.

“…We have just got to find guys that want to compete.

Arkansas jumped out 2-0 lead in the opening inning when Jacobi walked Kozeal to force in a run and then hit Brent Iredale to plate another.

Missouri tied it 2-2 in the third on Keegan Knutson’s RBI double and Kaden Peer’s run-scoring infield hit.

But the Razorbacks responded with two of their own in the bottom of the third when Logan Maxwell homered and Ryder Helfrick doubled in a run.

Arkansas would then score 17 runs in its next three at-bats – 5 each in the fourth and the fifth innings and 7 run the sixth.

“When are chasing the big numbers, it makes it difficult for guys to kind of stay in that aggressive mindset,” Jackson said. “We have talked about it before. We have got to separate the offense sides and defensive sides.

“We have the ability to score runs, but I just think that when we come out and score and can’t get a zero after that, can’t thrown strikes and we don’t make defensive plays, the we start to feel sorry for ourselves. We have got to figure out a way to get over that.”

Part of the fifth inning rally came on Iredale’s three-run blast, which was his 10th of the season and put Arkansas up 7-2.

“I think what it did is, it just, it maybe gave some guys a little confidence and really gave us some momentum,” Van Horn said of Iredale’s homer. “ It was a big swing.

“We scored two in the third, but then we also, we left a lot of runs out there early. We were one hit away from breaking it open and having a five or six-run lead.

“…Yeah, it was a big swing. Pitch before that, he fouled it off, and then he got one he could handle and he hammered it.”

Iredale had two hits along with Helfrick and Thomas, who had four RBIs in the game.

Dylan Carter and Will McEntire both pitched a scoreless inning to close out the the game.

Photo by John D. James