After picking up their 11th straight victory on Friday night against the now 18th-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, the Arkansas Razorbacks dropped the final two games of the series to fall to 30-5 on the season and 12-3 in SEC play while sliding out of their No. 1 spot in the D1Baseball Top 25.
Here is a closer look at this weekend’s action as Arkansas drops its first series of the 2024 season in Tuscaloosa.
Game Recaps
Game 1 – Arkansas 5, Alabama 3: The Hogs got off to a powerful start against Ben Hess with a two-run homer from Ben McLaughlin to get things started in the top of the first. Jared Sprague-Lott came to the plate next and said “Hold my beer,” launching a long ball of his own to put the Hogs up 3-0 in the first. Arkansas would plate two more in the third via a Hudson White RBI single and a wild pitch that scored Kendall Diggs. Bama would try to mount a comeback in the eighth, where they jumped all over Will McEntire and put three on the board, but the Tide fell short.
Game 2 – Alabama 4, Arkansas 3: Saturday’s game was the game of solo home runs, with Alabama getting one apiece in the second and third innings to go up 2-0 heading into the fifth. Peyton Stovall left the yard to cut the lead in half in the fifth before Sprague-Lott would come up an inning later and do the same. With the game tied in the bottom of the eighth, TJ McCants hit a double, scoring the runner from first and putting the Tide up 3-2 heading into the ninth. With two outs, Peyton Holt decided he would be the hero as he sent a ball over the left field fence to tie the game up and send it to extras. Unfortunately, Holt’s efforts only delayed the inevitable as Alabama walked it off on the bottom of the 10th when McCants hit a dribbler to the mound. Jake Faherty couldn’t handle it, throwing the ball over McLaughlin’s head at first to seal the deal for Bama.
Game 3 – Alabama 5, Arkansas 0: Most Razorback fans would tell you that this was the worst game offensively since Oklahoma State in Arlington, and they wouldn’t be wrong. The Diamond Hogs only managed four hits on Sunday, all of which came from McLaughlin and Sprague-Lott, who each had two. The Razorbacks put zero runs on the board for the first time since Game 2 against Ole Miss in the 2022 College World Series. Alabama pieced together four more runs than they needed.
Series Storylines
Weak Offense…
The Hogs managed only 16 hits across 3 games this past weekend and only scored 8 runs total. Those numbers aren’t going to win you many games or series. If you had told me Arkansas would only score eight runs in the series, I would assume that Alabama would have swept.
The Razorbacks struck out 26 times and only walked eight times, showing an unprecedented lack of patience from a team that entered the weekend as the SEC’s leader in walks. In the series preview, it was mentioned as a “Key to the Series” that the offense be patient and let the Alabama pitching staff hurt itself.
Clearly very few in the Arkansas lineup read that part of the article because that is certainly not what happened. Now, with that being said, give credit where credit is due. The Alabama pitching staff stepped up big time, especially with great performances from Greg Farone and Zane Adams. However, the approach at the plate seemed off all weekend. It was almost as if the offense was tired.
Peyton Holt Shaking Things Up
Holt got the start in left field on Saturday, and he made the most of it, going 3-4 at the plate with a game-tying shot in the ninth. Going into the weekend, one of the season storylines has been the battle in left field, which was seemingly between Will Edmunson, Ross Lovich and maybe even Jayson Jones.
Dave Van Horn decided to toss the usual third baseman Holt into left. Now, Holt did go 0-3 on Sunday with a strikeout, but the senior is now 5-14 in his last four starts and seems to be putting together good at-bats.
So, who the heck is going to be the every-day left fielder? The answer isn’t as simple as just a single name. We will almost certainly see Lovich and Edmunson out there again soon enough. It’s seeming more and more likely that the Hogs just don’t have an every-day left fielder and it’ll be a game-to-game decision on who is the best option based on matchups.
What this does seem to maybe clear up, though, is actually third base, where Sprague-Lott and Holt had split some time. Sprague-Lott had a big weekend, going 5-10 with 2 walks, and I would think maybe, just maybe, that cements his spot at third. So, going forward, if Holt wants to get into the lineup, he needs to just keep on hitting, and apparently keep on playing left field.
Strong Weekend From The Big 3
Despite the extremely worrisome weekend from the offense, the Arkansas starting pitching snuck in a good weekend on the mound. Hagen Smith had an “OK” outing by his standards, which just means he looked human. The stat line was still very impressive – 0 earned runs in 6 innings, 2 hits given up.
Mason Molina came out Saturday and gave the Hogs another 6 innings while striking out 1 per inning and giving up 2 earned on his outing. Brady Tygart did not have his legacy game as some predicted he would, but he did hold the Tide down for 5 innings, allowing only 1 run and walking 2 batters. None of the three had a “big” game really, but they all were solid and kept Arkansas in games in which the offense gave it no help whatsoever.
The big thing to note is that through the 17 innings the starters threw, only 5 Alabama hitters were walked, with 3 of those 5 being from Smith. If all three can keep the walk numbers down, the offense won’t need to feel much pressure to put a lot of runs on the opponent.
Series MVG (Most Valuable Gorilla)
Jared Sprague-Lott: 5-10, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB
In a series where Arkansas’ offense looked awful, Sprague-Lott shined. Coming off of the Ole Miss weekend in which he went 3-10, Sprague-Lott upped himself at Alabama, hitting in half of his at-bats and homering on back-to-back days. He didn’t have much competition for the best batter award this weekend. Sprague-Lott had the most hits in the series by two, ahead of McLaughlin.
Sprague-Lott is now batting .265 in SEC play with four home runs, which ties him for second on the team with Nolan Souza.
Series MVA (Most Valuable Arm)
Hagen Smith: 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 6 K, 3 BB, 2 H
For this weekly award, we can pretty much scrap games two and three, because no pitching effort would’ve been valuable enough in those contests, as the offense stalled. So, that leaves us with Smith, who had a really solid outing and held the Bama bats scoreless in his 6 innings while only giving up a pair of hits. He earned his seventh win of the season.
Smith now has a 1.20 ERA in conference play with 49 Ks through 30 innings.
The Cold Hard Truth
Arkansas is fine. Dave Van Horn is not washed, and the Hogs were not “overrated.” This team is damn good. Now, was this weekend concerning? Absolutely, yes, it was concerning. If you were watching this weekend, I can assure you, you were concerned.
Arkansas is 30-5. That’s six times as many wins as losses. That is really, really good. This team has not suddenly forgotten how to win, and neither has Van Horn. The offense is underwhelming, and there are things that need to be figured out, but it is absolutely not time to hit the panic button. The bottom line is that there is a series like this every single year.
The Hogs always get caught sleepwalking by someone at some point in every season. This year it happened to be the Alabama. Last year it was Georgia, and the year before it was Florida.
So, take a deep breath. It’s one bad weekend. That happens, even to teams as good as this one is. This could still be the year. There isn’t a doubt in my mind about that. Have faith, friends.
Up Next
The No. 2 Razorbacks will play Game 1 against the Texas Tech Red Raiders in a Power 5 mid-week contest on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN2, and Game 2 is set for 4 p.m. on SEC Network.