Top-ranked Arkansas explodes late to down No. 7 Georgia 13-3

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

The nation’s top-ranked college baseball team proved it could go on the road, fall down early and just shake it off.

After falling behind 3-0 in the second inning, No. 1 Arkansas rallied with 13 unanswered runs to take a 13-3 win over No. 7 Georgia Friday night in Athens.

The win kept the Razorbacks (32-3, 12-1) tied atop the SEC standings with Texas, 6-3 winners at Kentucky on Friday night.

Arkansas finished off the scoring with a 7-run top of the ninth inning that lasted 24 minutes as 12 Razorback hitters came to the plate.

It was also Razorback head coach Dave Van Horn’s 1,500th career coaching win.

“That was a good job by our team, hanging in there the first few innings after getting down 3-0,” Van Horn said. “Georgia swung the bat extremely well an I thought (Arkansas starting pitcher) Zach (Root) threw the ball extremely well and they just put a few good swing on it and got out on us. 

“Offensively, I thought we just kind of wore (Georgia starting pitcher Brian) Curley down. The first three innings it was liege 9 up and 9 down, but it slowly started to flip.

“We got him in the stretch when he hit (Wehiwa) Aloy, got some big hits and tied it up and then Zach got to work and got us back in the dugout a couple of times.

“Just a gritty win on a Friday night on the road.”

Arkansas, which out-hit it host 12-5, did lose a player to injury during the contest as Nolan Souza hurt his shoulder in the fifth inning going into third base.

“I don’t know much yet, but he hurt it pretty bad,” noted Van Horn, who said he would be out “a lot longer” than just this weekend.

Souza’s replacement Gabe Fraser had a sixth-inning triple that gave the Razorbacks a 4-3 lead.

It was just the lightly-used Fraser’s fifth hit in 21 at bats this season and was obviously his biggest.

“Well it definitely gave us a spark because it gave us the lead,” Van Horn said. “On the road, packed house, a lot of atmosphere, a lot of anticipation of us playing.

“Obviously you guys aren’t here, yeah, this is a big series for them. We try to stay as even keel as best we can, but sometimes you can just tell it means a little bit more.”

Georgia head coach and former Arkansas pitching coach Wes Johnson’s Bulldogs (30-6, 8-5) lost their fourth straight league game after starting off 8-1.

“When you get into Friday nights in this league and really Friday, Saturday or Sunday and you are playing games in this league, you get your opportunities, you have got to cash in, you have got to grind out at bats, you have got to move the baseball, you have got to get runs across and up on that board,” Johnson said. “They did and we didn’t.”

Arkansas got a solid start from Root, who went 5 2/3 innings, allowed three runs on five hits, fanned seven, walked three, had a balk and threw 95 pitches, 71 for strike

Aiden Jimenez (4-0) got the final out of the sixth inning and went on to pitch 2 1/3 innings of no-hit relief.


After the long top of the ninth, Dylan Carter finished out with a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth while fanning two Bulldogs.


Georgia jumped ahead 3-0 in the second inning on Devin Obee’s RBI groudout and ninth-place hitter Kolby Branch’s two-run homer.

It stayed that way until the fourth when Arkansas got it first baserunner against Curley.

That’s when Wehiwa Aloy was hit with a one-out pitch, which started a rally that included Logan Maxwell’s RBI double, Brent Iredale’s run-scoring single and0 and Kuhio Aloy’s two-out single that tied it 3-3.

Fraser gave Arkansas the lead for good with his seventh-inning triple that scored Kuhio Aloy.

Wehiwa Aloy’s 11th homer of the season was a solo shot in the eighth inning and Kuhio Aloys’ RBI single later in the inning pushed the Razorbacks lead to 6-3.

The wheels fell off for Georgia in the ninth with Wehiwa Aloy’s double and singles by Cam Kozeal, Kuhio Aloy and Ryder Helfrick all scoring runs and two more playing on a wild pitch and a passed ball.

“It was great,” Van Horn said. “We had a three-run lead going into the ninth, we were just hoping to score a run, make it four. But the way it worked out was great.

“Got a couple hits, hit by pitch, walks and a couple of big hits. Had a chance to kind of finish it up. Yeah, it was good. It was a good feeling because the wind was blowing out — it was blowing really hard at the beginning of the game. They hit a couple of sky-ball fly balls that blew all the way to the fence and you’re kinda going, ‘Wow. This is jumpy tonight.’ But it calmed down a little bit the second half of the game.”

Johnson obviously didn’t enjoy it as much.

“We had plenty of opportunities to turn this game in our favor,” Johnson said. “Offensively, we had second and third, we had bases loaded and we just couldn’t get it done.

“And then we decided to not execute some pitches right there in the seventh and the eighth and obviously the ninth kind of got away from us.

“We had opportunities to flip it and make the game completely different ad we just didn’t get it done.”

Curley stymied Arkansas until the fourth and pitched five innings before being relieved by JT Quinn (0-1).

They were two of Georgia’s six pitchers on the night.

“He didn’t walk anybody and I think he had four or five punch outs, but you look right there in the fourth,” Johnson said. “We had a couple of guys where we wanted them and that’s where we have got to really buckle down as a pitching staff and execute some pitches and not leave the ball in the strike zone.”

The two teams will continue the series Saturday with with a 3 p.m. CST game and conclude it on Sunday in a noon contest.

Photo courtesy of Razorbacks Communications