The No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks picked up their 11th mid-week win of the season with a 12-7 victory over the Missouri State Bears on Tuesday night inside Baum-Walker Stadium.
Gage Wood came out shoving in his first career start, tossing three scoreless innings before seven other Arkansas pitchers saw action, with Jake Faherty closing things out. The Razorback bats had a nice day at the office as well, using their 10 hits to score 12 runs behind nice performances from Wehiwa Aloy and Jared Sprague-Lott.
Here is a closer look at the action as Arkansas won its 38th game of the 2024 season.
Scoring Recap
Bottom 1 – Arkansas 4, Missouri State 0: The Razorbacks got on the board in a big way early with Aloy’s third grand slam of the season after the first three Hogs reached on base hits.
Bottom 2 – Arkansas 5, Missouri State 0: Peyton Holt rolled a bunt single down the third base line to score Will Edmunson, who reached on a hit by pitch before collecting his sixth stolen base.
Bottom 3 – Arkansas 9, Missouri State 0: After Aloy and Ryder Helfrick began the inning with back-to-back walks, a Jack Wagner RBI single extended the lead to six. A Hudson White double scored Helfrick and advanced Wagner to third before a two-RBI single by Peyton Stovall put the Hogs up 9-0.
Top 4 – Arkansas 9, Missouri State 4: Missouri State got on the board with an RBI single from Nick Rodriguez before Cooper Dossett hit former Hog Dylan Leach with the bases loaded to score the second run. The Bears grabbed two more runs on a two-RBI single by Logan Chambers to cut the Arkansas lead to five.
Bottom 4 – Arkansas 11, Missouri State 4: Ryder Helfrick doubles down the third base line scoring Sprague-Lott, who reached on a walk, from first. Jayson Jones brought home Helfrick on an RBI single to score the Hogs’ 11th run.
Top 7 – Arkansas 11, Missouri State 7: Missouri State cut the Arkansas lead to just four with a three-run homer via Taeg Gollert.
Bottom 8 – Arkansas 12, Missouri State 7: Srague-Lott sent his sixth home run of 2024 into the Hog Pen.
Winner and Loser
Win – (ARK) Gage Wood: 3.0 IP, 0 ER, 1H, 4Ks, 0BB
Loss – (MSU) Brendan Beaver: 2.0 IP, 5 ER, 5H, 2Ks, 0BB
Gorilla of the Game
Wehiwa Aloy: 1-4, HR, 4 RBI, BB, 2 Ks
After the first three Hog batters of the ball game reached on base hits, Aloy stepped in and hit his third grand slam of the season to put himself in the running for Gorilla of the Game early on.
Aside from a walk, that was about all she wrote for the Hawaiin native, who now bats .282 on the year and leads the team in home runs (11) and RBI (48).
It is worth acknowledging that Sprague-Lott went 2-4 with a homer of his own, but Aloy’s grand slam ended up being the most game-changing hit, earning him Gorilla of the Game.
Most Valuable Arm
Gage Wood: 3.0 IP, 0 ER, 1H, 4Ks, 0 BB
Wood faced the minimum in his first career start on Tuesday, retiring each of the 9 batters he faced through 3 innings of work with 4 strikeouts.
Wood is known to pitch with a lot of moxie, and that was no different against Missouri State. The sophomore looked sharp, with his fastball running into the mid- to upper-90s to round out his arsenal.
Expect to see Wood again this weekend in a critical spot against Kentucky.
Other Game Notes and Factoids
- Wood got his first career start on Tuesday becoming Arkansas’ sixth starting pitcher of the season, joining Hagen Smith, Brady Tygart, Mason Molina, Colin Fisher and Ben Bybee.
- Arkansas has now hit six grand slams on the season, three by Aloy, and one from each of Nolan Souza, Jayson Jones and, of course, Hudson Polk.
- With Tuesday being the third annual Childhood Cancer Awareness game, the Hogs donned bright yellow caps, adding to their hat repertoire that previously included the classic red and camo.
- Leach made his return to Baum-Walker Stadium on Tuesday. The Bears’ catcher was a Hog for two seasons before spending time at Mizzou and now Missouri State.
- Tuesday was also Bark in the Park Night, with a recorded dog attendance of 68.
- Will McEntire got an inning of work and allowed no baserunners while striking out one.
Up Next
The No. 2 Razorbacks and Bears will square off again Wednesday at 4 p.m. The game will be streaming live on SEC Network+.