Mother Nature delays series opener’s finish with Arkansas up 10-1 on ULM

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – On a Tuesday afternoon when Mother Nature tried to show off almost everything in her tool box at Baum-Walker Stadium, she finally threw down a lightning bolt to end things.

No. 3 Arkansas led the University of Louisiana-Monroe 10-1 in the seventh inning when action was called on Tuesday after clouds, sun, rain, wind.the lighting bolt and more rain

The game will be resumed Wednesday at 2 p.m. with the day’s regularly scheduled game set to start immediately afterward.

Arkansas (10-1) was just a strike away from a 10-0 run rule victory only to see Marcus Aranda’s RBI double off Cole Gibler to keep things going.

Razorback Nolan Souza singled leading off the bottom of the seventh and raced to third when Charles Davalan’s fielder’s choice was thrown away at second for an error.

With the game-ending run just 90 feet away, the lighting bolt came – ensuring at lest a 30-minute delay – and then more rain and unplayable field conditions made the decision to push things to Wednesday.

Arkansas took a 1-0 lead in opening inning on Brent Iredale’s sacrifice fly an moved that to 2-0 on Cam Kozeal’s solo homer in the second.

Kuhio Aloy’s RBI single in the pushed that margin to 3-0 in the third inning.

Razorbacks Ryder Helfrick and Brent Iredale hit home runs in a six-run fourth that surged the hosts ahead 9-0.

Kozeal’s RBI single in the sixth put the ULM deficit at 9-0.

The Razorbacks got three scoreless innings from starter Colin Fisher (a career-high six strikeouts), two from Dylan Carter and one from Oregon State transfer Aiden Jiminez.