No. 3 Arkansas tunes up for this weekend’s SEC opener at Ole Miss with 9-2 win over UCA

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – After matching its best 17-game start in the Dave Van Horn era, No. 3 Arkansas appears ready to take its show on the road this weekend.

The Razorbacks downed in-state foe UCA 9-2 Tuesday night for their 12th consecutive win this season and the 15th straight home non-conference victory at Baum-Walker Stadium.

With the win, Arkansas (16-1) completed a sweep of its 10-game home stand ahead of its SEC opening series at No. 13 Ole Miss (14-2).

“This one of those games that you worry about as a coach,” Van Horn said of the clash with UCA. “Getting ready to go on the road, you’ve had pretty good success, SEC play is starting.

“But really proud of the guys for coming out and taking care of business. Again, didn’t make anuy mistakes really in the field or base running and didn’t give them too much. I think we walked them three times.

“I don’t know, just a good win on a Tuesday, good to play under the lights and a really good crowd. I know the weather was good, but it was good to see all the fans out here on a Tuesday.”

Kuhio Aloy, Brent Iredale and Cam Kozeal all homered and combined for all five of their team’s six hits, six runs scored and nine RBIs.

Arkansas plated two runs each in the second off UCA starter Perry Titlow (0-1) and third innings and five in the fourth.

“I think my four, five and six hole hitters drove in all my runs – like nine RBIs between those three guys with a couple of big swings,” Van Horn said.

“You think how we scored those in the second, a walk and a two-run homer (by Iredale) and then the next one (inning), there is an error, a two-run homer (by Aloy) and we’re up 4-0.”

With two outs, Iredale’s single drove in two runs in the fourth and Kozeal followed with a three-run blast to cap of the five-run uprising.

“…Obviously there in the fourth inning we got some really big hits with two outs and kind of put the game away or gave us a really comfortable lead,” Van Horn said.

“We didn’t do much after that. Hit a few balls hard, but the bats weren’t super good sometimes.”

The Razorbacks and Rebels will play Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 1:30 and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

Van Horn said he plans to start Gabe Gaeckle (1-0, 6.16 ERA), Zach Root 2-0, 2.11) and Landon Beidelschies (2-0, 2.37) this weekend and will announce in what order on Thursday.

Ole Miss’ 13-game win streak came to an end on Tuesday night when South Alabama downed the visiting Rebels 13-5 in Mobile.

They have junior starter Hunter Elliott (3-0, 1.86 ERA) back as the ace of the staff after battling injuries last season.

“I think they are pitching better, got their Friday night guy back from a a couple of years ago that was injured,” Van Horn said. “He gives them an opportunity to win every time he is own the mound.

“And they have some right handers with rally good arms, a lot of velocity and have got some guys in the line up who are swinging it well and hitting the ball hard and out of the park.”

Arkansas starting pitcher Collin Fisher (2-0) pitched three scoreless innings while allowing only a single to led off the game, fanning three, walking no one and throwing 39 pitches, 24 for strikes.

Fisher has allowed just omen run in 11 innings and lowered his ERA to 0.82 with his effort on Tuesday night.

“The reason we took him out after he threw what, 39 pitches and three innings is because we got to have him ready for the weekend,” Van Horn said.

“He could get in rotation on the weekend. Nothing is set in stone. If things aren’t going good or somebody needs a weekend off or whatever the case may be, we would have no problem starting him in league play or whatever.

“So, yeah, we got him out of there because league play starts and we plan on using him.”

Fisher was followed to the mound by Ben Bybee, Dylan Carter, freshman Cole Gibler and Will McEntire, all of whom but Gibler veterans that have logged many innings.

“It’s older guys that have been there an been in the heat of it, whether it is league play or mid-week games,” Van Horn said. “It is nice to be able to put those guys out there, but I also really like just seeing Gibler out there.

“They don’t hit him. He is hard to hit. Breaking ball is really good, had a couple of different speeds of it. He showed you he had a tough fastball that has carried and read 99 on the board, but look harder to the those hitters and you could tell by the way they were swinging at it.

“I wouldn’t have one bit of an issue putting him in a really tough situation in a conference game.”

Photo by John D, James