The No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks improved to 7-2 on the year with a 5-1 victory to begin a three-game series against the Murray State Racers at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Following a 17-strikeout performance in Arlington, junior LHP Hagen Smith turned in another strong start for the Hogs to pick up his first win of the season. Freshman RHP Gabe Gaeckle recorded the final five outs for Arkansas to pick up his first career save.
The Razorbacks finished with seven hits, three of which came during a three-run second inning, and that proved to be more than enough as the Hogs’ pitching staff continued its early-season dominance. Here’s a rundown of the action and a few notes on what stood out from Arkansas’ series-opening win.
SCORING RECAP
- Top 1 – Murray State 1, Arkansas 0: Drew Vogel goes the other way with the second pitch of the game and lifts a solo home run off the performance facility in right field to give the Racers an early lead against Hagen Smith.
- Bot 2 – Arkansas 2, Murray State 1: Ben McLaughlin works a leadoff walk, Wehiwa Aloy singles up the middle, and Hudson Polk reaches on an infield single to the left side. After that, Jayson Jones lines the first pitch he sees 110 MPH down the right-field line for a two-run double with nobody out.
- Bot 2 – Arkansas 3, Murray State 1: Peyton Holt grounds one to the shortstop Vogel, who flips to third base for the first out as Polk comes in to score.
- Bot 8 – Arkansas 4, Murray State 1: After Kendall Diggs and Jared Sprague-Lott started the frame with singles to put runners on the corners, Ben McLaughlin grounded out to the first baseman to drive home Arkansas’ fourth run.
- Bot 8 – Arkansas 5, Murray State 1: A wild pitch brings Sprague-Lott home after a groundout from Aloy moved him up to third base with two away.
MVB (Most Valuable Bat)
Jayson Jones: In the extensive history of this Quick Hits series (two games), Jayson Jones has now won every single MVB honor. It only took one hit to do it in this low-scoring affair, but Jones’ bases-loaded double in the second inning proved to be all Arkansas needed to pick up win No. 7.
Hitting with runners in scoring position has been a little bit of a sore area for the Hogs early on this year, but Jones has made the most of his opportunities and now leads the team with 10 RBI in just 24 at-bats. The 110 MPH line drive he smashed down the right-field line for today’s double also serves as a reminder to what kind of power the Razorbacks are hoping he can bring to the lineup consistently.
MVA (Most Valuable Arm)
Hagen Smith: Smith allowed a leadoff homerun to start his outing and decided that was enough hits for the Murray State lineup. He quickly retired the next three hitters he faced, struck out the side in the second and then cruised through the rest of his outing.
Smith issued a one-out walk in the third inning and then went on to retire the final 11 hitters he faced before exiting the game with a 3-1 lead after six strong innings. The left-hander threw a season-high 81 pitches (54 strikes) and held pretty consistent velocity throughout the outing, mostly operating in the 96-97 range with his fastball while generating several whiffs with a mid-80s slider.
DON’T OVERLOOK
- After striking out five of the seven hitters he faced (one strikeout got away from Hudson White behind home plate), Gabe Gaeckle now has 13 strikeouts in 7.1 this season. The MLB average for fastball spin rate was around 2,200 RPM (revolutions per minute), and Gaeckle’s 95-97 MPH fastball consistently spun above 2,500 RPM, per Arkansas’ TrackMan data.
- Hagen Smith entered the day 11th on Arkansas’ career strikeout list at 218. He passed Mike Oquist (223), Isaiah Campbell (224), Gerald Hannahs (225) and Charlie Boyce (229) with his 12 punchouts this afternoon and now sits just two shy of tying Kevin Kopps (232) for 6th.
- There were a combined eight 1-2-3 frames between the two teams, four by each club.
- Despite his slow start to the season, Arkansas shortstop posted his third multi-hit game of the season with a pair of singles, raising his batting average to .229 after sitting at .167 following the Hogs’ Arlington trip.
- Senior RHP Koty Frank struck out three Racer hitters across 1.1 scoreless innings of work before turning the ball over to Gaeckle with one out in the eighth inning. Frank has allowed just one earned run (1.23 ERA) and struck out 11 hitters across 7.1 innings of work in five appearances this season.
- The Razorbacks entered the game with the most strikeouts in the country. After 20 more this afternoon (third 20-strikeout game in last seven days), the Hogs sit at 133 strikeouts through nine games, good for a nice little 14.8 average.
- Junior right fielder Kendall Diggs singled and scored a run in the eighth inning, and he has now hit safely in all nine games this season. His batting average did dip from .400 to .382, though.
UP NEXT
The No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks and the Murray State Racers will return to Baum-Walker Stadium tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. (CT) for the second game of the series. The game will be streamed on SEC Network Plus via the ESPN App.