No. 2 Diamond Hogs dominate No. 14 Commodores 9-0 with complete effort in Nashville

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON


Arkansas may not have won a baseball series in Nashville since 2010, but took a big step toward doing so on Friday night.

Commodore turned Razorback Cam Kozeal went 3 for 3 with 2 home runs and 5 RBIs and Zach Root pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings as No. 2 Arkansas downed No. 14 Vanderbilt 9-0 at Hawkins Field.

The Diamond Hogs (24-3, 6-1) handed the Commodores (20-6, 4-3) their first loss at home this season and ended their steak of school-record 16 straight home victories to start a campaign.

“Just a great job by our team bouncing back from that tough game on Tuesday,” noted Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn, referencing a 14-13 home loss to Missouri State.

“We played really well with some big hits. Zach Root pitched exceptionally well. He just filled up the zone and mixed up four pitches and was throwing the ball in the mid ‘90s.

“His last inning, the eighth, he was still 94 or 95 when he wanted to. It was just a really good win on the road at a tough place.”

Arkansas kept pace with Georgia, Tennessee, Texas atop the SEC standings with the quartet all currently 6-1 in league action.


The Hawkins Field crowd Friday night featured lot of fans from both programs – something Van Horn took note of before the game started.

“I mean we probably had as many fans as they did,” Van Horn said. “I don’t look up there that much, but we had a lot of red and a lot of them early, too…It was kind of neat to see.”

Arkansas out-hit Vanderbilt 9-3 with five of those hits coming from Logan Maxwell and Kozeal, who started 34 of the 45 games he played in last season as a freshman for the Commodores.

“We could never really get in rhythm,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said. “Our swings weren’t comfortable,. And on the other side I thought their swings were more comfortable.”

Corbin lauded Kozeal for his effort on Friday night.

“Good two-strike hitting,” Corbin said. “And he sat on a couple of fastballs that weren’t located well, and he hit them hard.”

Kozeal said he didn’t feel any extra emotion on Friday.

“Not really,” Kozeal said. “It’s nameless, faceless opponents. We talk about that a lot. If you think that way, you can stay pretty composed. That just goes to performance.

Root (4-1) allowed just three hits, fanned seven and walked a batter before exiting in the bottom of the eighth inning with the bases loaded and two outs.

He did not allow a hit until designated hitter Mac Rose’s single in the and he was immediately wiped out on a double play.

Root’s last pitch was his 100th of night in a game where he threw 66 strike in his second straight solid effort after to subpar ones.

“It’s just putting the past behind and learning from the mistakes you made and just doing your best to not make those mistakes again,” Root said. “Up to this point, I feel like I have done just that.

“I kept the ball down in the zone and I think everything has been working an I am just throwing it where I want to throw it.

Aiden Jiminez took over on the mound in the eighth for Root and needed just three pitches to escape the jam.

Dylan Cater then completed the shutout by blanking the Commodores in the ninth.

Arkansas jumped ahead 1-0 in the third inning when catcher Ryder Helfrick led off with a triple and scored on Nolan Souza’s fielder’s choice.

The Razorbacks pushed that to 4-0 in the fourth when Logan Maxwell hit a solo homer and Kozeal hit a two-run blast off Commodores starting pitcher J.T. Thompson (2-2).

Kozeal then launched his sixth homer of the season, a solo blast off Thompson in the sixth, to increase the lead to 6-0.

A bases-loaded walk to Souza in the eighth added a run in the eighth before Kuhio Aloy doubled in a run and Kozeal singled in a pair in the ninth to cap the scoring.

“We talked to him (Kozeal) the last couple of days about keeping his emotions in check and I thought he did that,” Van Horn said.

The two teams will meet again Saturday at 2 p.m and Sunday at 11 p.m. to finish off the series.

Photo courtesy of Razorbacks Communications