No. 1 Arkansas’ sixth-inning blasts and gritty pitching take down Ole Miss 5-2

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

No. 1 Arkansas came out in camo hats on Thursday night, but waited until the sixth inning to break out the lumber.

Wehiwa Aloy cranked a three-run homer and Are Sprague-Lott added a solo shot in a four-run sixth inning that propelled the Razorbacks to a 5-2 win over Ole Miss before an announced crowd of 10,231 fans at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Hagen Smith (6-0), Will McEntire and Stone Hewlett combined on the mound as Arkansas (25-3, 9-1) extended its school-record home winning streak to 19 and also gave the Razorbacks their best start ever in SEC action.

Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn felt like his team was about to get to Ole Miss starter Riley Maddox (2-3) as it batted against him a third time.

“I mean, we told them exactly what they were going to get,” Van Horn said. “Right-handers were going to get sink, in on the hands and you’ve got to try to pull the guy … for the most part.

“They’ve got to pull his fastball, and obviously the breaking ball you’ve got to shoot it the other way if you can. So that’s what made, in my opinion, Aloy’s swing, hitting that fastball the other way into the net.

“…You know he (Maddox) tried to sneak one by him (Aloy) over there. I don’t know where it was — it might have been down the middle — but his approach was great. And obviously that was the big swing of the game.”

Up until the sixth inning, Maddux had twirled a gem, allowing just one run on three hits and needing just 55 pitches to get through five innings.

But with his team leading 2-1, Maddoux started the bottom of the sixth by walking Peyton Stovall and Ben McLaughlin and then Aloy drilled a line drive, opposite field homer to give his team a 4-2 edge.

That was the end for Maddux, but Sprague-Lott hit the left field “fair” pole two batters later off reliever Josh Mallitz to make it 5-2.

“I don’t know how to say it,” Van Horn said. “But that was big for us. All of a sudden we shocked them — two walks, home run, they’re winning the whole game, now they’re down two.

“Two hitters later, a guy hits one off the foul pole and you’re (the Rebels) kind of going, ‘Two to three, now we need at least three to tie.’ It gets difficult and there’s only so many outs left in the game, so it was a really big swing.”

Sprague-Lott had a chat with Arkansas hitting coach Nate Thompson right before his at bat.

“Coach Thompson came up to me before the at-bat and we came up with a plan,” Sprague-Lott said. “He threw that curveball, hung it a little bit, and I just tried to put a good swing on it.”
Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco was impressed with Maddox’ first five innings.

“I’m proud of Riley,” Bianco said. “He came out in the sixth, back-to-back walks to the top of the line up and then you have got to face the middle unfortunately. That’s why they are good. They get a couple of homers after that.”

Maddox was more upset about the walks as opposed to the homers.

“I am pretty disappointed in myself,” Maddox said. “I know the first five innings were pretty good, but the sixth inning should never have happened. I should have never walked those guys right there.

“I was pitching scared. I wasn’t scared, but that is what it looked like. I am pretty disappointed that happened. So what he hit the homer, but walking guys I could control that. I shouldn’t have walked those guys there.”

Smith gave up two runs in the third inning – his first runs allowed that didn’t come via home runs – after giving up three singles, two of the infield variety.

Smith walked four batters – one that forced in a run in the third – while fanning 11, hitting a batter and posting his sixth quality start of the season.

“Maybe didn’t quite have the command that he’s had most of the season, but you know, give them some credit as well,” Van Horn said. “They laid off some breaking balls that maybe some teams swing at.

“Hagen pitched great. It’s hard getting out SEC hitters, and they got his pitch count up there a little bit in the second and third inning, and then he settled in a little bit for us.”

Smith threw 105 pitches, 68 of which were strikes, and his team got him a run back in the fourth on Ross Lovitch’s RBI ground out.

“I felt like he was getting better,” Van Horn said. “The only reason he came out was because of his pitch count. His stuff was great, so proud of him for hanging in there, but getting through that sixth inning was the key.

“It kind of fired us up and got us to within nine outs if we could just get the lead, and that’s what happened.”

Smith summed up his outing afterwards.

“Just a little off mechanically, I felt like,” Smith said. “Just kind of pulling off my front side, kinda missing everywhere with my fastball but we came back and scored so it was awesome.”

Smith credits his development under pitching coach Matt Hobbs for getting him through the outing.

“Just growing as a pitcher in general,” Smith said. “Just knowing the zone, attacking the zone. I mean my first year here, I would have never done that. I probably would have thrown three innings.

“It was good to get back and Coach Hobbs has done an amazing job with mechanics over the past two years. It got me to where I am right now.”

Bianco knew what his team was getting into with Smith, whose now has a 1.74 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 41 innings overeight starts.

“I thought we did a good job,” Bianco said of his team’s approach against Smith. “He’s the best pitcher in the country for a reason. We got him out in the sixth, but you would like to have done a little more damage obviously.”

Bianco lamented leaving nine runners on base.

“We knew runs were going to be a premium against Hagen Smith and then we go and leave nine runners on,” Bianco said.

“But it’s hard. We get a few hits, we got some walks and were able to bunch them together. That was the hope and that’s the thing. When he is that good, he is throwing the ball in the mid to upper 90s with that kind of slider. This is what he does every week.

“…It’s the left on base and not being able to keep them down. Beating the ace, a guy like Paul Skenes or any of those guys is try to get an inning where you can bunch it. And number two, try to get him out of there as quickly as possible.

“We got him out, but it would have been nice to get him an inning sooner, but we got him out after six. The other part if you have got to pitch really well on the other side and it looks like we were just about to do it.”

Luke Hill had 2 of his team’s 5 hits while Arkansas had 7.

“He’s just an overall really good pitcher,” Hill said of Smith. “…He is going to get drafted high, one of the top picks, and he is going to make his way up the ranks and pitch in the big leagues very soon.

“He is really a good pitcher. He pitches very confidently. He has four pitches that he can locate anywhere so hat’s off to him. He pitched really well tonight.”

McEntire took over on the mound in the seventh and went 2 2/3 scoreless innings while fanning x before Hewlett entered to get the last out for his fourth save.

“I thought his cutter was really moving,” Van Horn said of McEntire. “It was just running away maybe just off the plate. He made an adjustment the second inning and threw pretty good. We tried to keep him right around 50 pitches and just had the matchup with Stone against (xxxxx) Fischer.

“Fischer’s a really good hitter. He’s got a lot of bat speed and Stone did a great job getting him.”

Bianco echoed Van Horns sentiments on McEntire, who lowered his ERA to 1.78.

He’s terrific, and again, another one that we knew that, you know, the hope is that you get Hagen out, right?,” Bianco said. “But then you know as soon as you get him out, if the ballgame’s close, you’re going to see McEntire and (Gabe) Gaeckle at the end, if possible, and obviously he was warming up.

“And so they’re where they’re at, and they’ve had a lot of success this year, and not to take anything about Hagen, but there’s other guys obviously on that staff, and especially McEntire has kind of been their key guy, a guy that can just come in and eat up a lot of innings. He’s a strike thrower. It’s hard to mount a lot off of him. He’s really good.”

Ole Miss will start Liam Doyle on the mound Friday against Arkansas’ Mason Molina in a 6:30 p.m. game that will be streamed by SEC +.

“When he is Liam, he can be really good and I don’t think it really matters who he is facing,” Bianco said. “So that’s the key tomorrow. He is excited because of what happened last week to get back out there.

“We need a great effort. It is a tough place to play, but we played hard tonight. Guys played with a lot more confidence than they have played with over the last few games. But we have got to do the little things that win baseball games.”

Hill said his team is on the verge of turning a corner despite losing its fifth straight outing.

“Recently, the record, what we have done is not acceptable for us and we know that,” Hill said. “But after, and I don’t want to say it was a moral victory because I think that is soft, but after what we did versus Memphis (losing 8-4 Tuesday), that was brutal.

“Today, showing up with what did you have to lose? We are in their ballpark, we’re playing the No. 1 team in the country with a great arm…We played loose, played like we have fun and made it like a game and not like a job.

“I think we are really close and we are going to be a really good team. I have no worries about that.”

Photo by John D. James