Root twirls a gem while Arkansas slugs four homers against Portland in 10th straight win

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas started hitting the baseball hard in Friday’s first inning against Portland and hasn’t stopped since.

Veteran Kendall Diggs’ two-run homer was final of four blasts Saturday for the No. 3 Razorbacks en route to 10-0 victory over the Pilots.

It was third walk off win for Arkansas (13-1) in as many games this week and extended the team’s winning streak to 10.

That offense was more than enough for Razorback starting pitcher Zach Root (2-0), who fanned 10 while allowing three hits and walking one batter in six scoreless innings.

“The first two innings took like 20 minutes, it seemed like and it was quick,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “I thought we did a really good job in the third inning of getting a couple of pitches to hit and we did and score a couple of unsuccessful.

“But really Root set the tone just filling up the zone. Mixing it, throwing a cutter and a curveball, a change up every now and then and a fastball. He just had really good stuff and command and had some quick innings.”

The Saturday win clinched Arkansas’ 32nd consecutive non-conference series win.

The two teams will finish up their three game series on Sunday at noon with Landon Beidelchies (2-0, 1.29 ERA) starting for Arkansas and Ryan Rembisz (2-0, 2.18) for Portland (5-10).

Rembisz threw the 21st perfect nine-inning game in NCAA history earlier this season, needing only 90 pitches and fanning 12 in a 8-0 win over Seattle on Feb. 25.

Wehiwa Aloy’s one-out double off losing pitcher Kaden Segal (1-2) in the third put Arkansas up 2-0 while scoring Nolan Souza and Justin Thomas.

Arkansas, which beat broke open the game in the fourth inning where all five of its runs were scored with two outs.

Brent Iredale walked to open the bottom of the fourth, stole second with two outs and then raced home when Souza singled to make it 3-0.

Souza stole second before Thomas crushed a two-run homer – the first blast of his Razorback career – increasing the margin to 5-0.

Charles Davalan’s single was followed by Wehiwa Aloy’s fifth homer of the season to make it 7-0.

“Obviously the fourth inning, I think that might have been the inning, we stole a couple of bases and drove in maybe all our runs with two outs,” Van Horn said. “…It was a really good inning.

“And then I felt like we were in control up 7-0 and Zach pitching like he was. He could have gone another inning or two, we wanted to get him out of there and just save him a little bit for down the road.”

Root did not allow a base hit until Cole Kamataya-Stall’s infield hit in the fifth and ended up throwing 80 pitches, 54 for strikes.

“I made a good pitch and I just felt like that he kind of put a not too good swing on it and kind of tapped it down the baseline,” Root said. “I don’t like when that happens – I make a good pitch and they get a cheap little hit.

“I just had to make sure that run doesn’t score and keep my team in it because I don’t think we were up a lot at that point.

“…Just continue to keep the momentum on our side and keep them off the boards.”

Root did admit he would have liked to have pitched in Friday’s 70-degree weather instead of the 40s on Saturday.

“I felt pretty good,” Root said. “I obviously would have rather pitched in yesterday’s weather, but you can’t control that and so just had to go out there and do the best that I could and like always just give my team chance to win.”

Colin Fisher pitched the final inning for Arkansas while allowing a hit and fanning a batter.

Davalan’s two-out, solo homer in sixth gave Arkansas an 8-0 advantage and him a 3 for 3 day at the plate.

Razorback first baseman Cam Kozeal singled leading off the seventh but was thrown out stealing.

Iredale then set up the game-ring scenario when he doubled in a game where Arkansas outhit its foe (10-4).

Diggs’ second homer of the season came with two outs on a day when the Razorbacks plated all but two of those in clutch situations.

‘It feels like in recent times that in game we have been really swinging it well with two outs,” Diggs said. “Coach rallied emphasizes that the the inning is not over with two outs.

So I think when that comes around we kind of play more with a little more chip on our shoulder knowing the inning is not over.”

Photo by John D. James