The No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks (42-10, 19-8 SEC) scored nine unanswered runs after falling behind 6-0 in Sunday’s rubber match against No. 14 Mississippi State (33-18, 15-12 SEC) en route to their seventh SEC series win.
After a hard-fought victory on Friday night in which the Razorbacks used several of their top arms, the Hogs fell short of a comeback in Game 2 before completing one in dramatic fashion in Game 3.
Here is a closer look at this weekend’s action as Arkansas won its seventh SEC series of the 2024 season.
Game by Game Recap
Game 1 – Arkansas 7, MSU 5: Mississippi State would tell you that it probably should have won Game 1 of this series, and it wouldn’t be entirely incorrect. The Bulldogs left 13 men on base as they tagged Hagen Smith for a season-high three earned runs. The Razorbacks got it done behind big performances from Wehiwa Aloy and Hudson White, who hit his first home run of the weekend along with his go-ahead two-RBI single in the bottom of the eighth before Gage Wood shut the door on the Hogs’ 18th SEC win.
Game 2 – MSU 8, Arkansas 5: The Bulldogs jumped all over Brady Tygart, knocking him out of the contest before he could get through the second inning. Things didn’t get much better, and before you knew it the Hogs found themselves down 8-0 in the fourth inning. The Razorbacks would put two on the board that inning and two more in the fifth thanks to a two-run blast by Peyton Stovall, but a Kendall Diggs sac fly in the sixth would be the last of the scoring for the Hogs.
Game 3 – Arkansas 9, MSU 6: The series finale looked to be heading in the same direction as Game 2 by the second inning in which the Bulldogs put up five runs. They would tack on another in the third, and the Arkansas fan base had just about given up hope by the fourth inning, with the offense showing few signs of life. That hope would be rekindled in the fifth inning after a two-run shot by Jayson Jones to cut the State lead in half. Arkansas would get their fourth run on a Jared Sprague-Lott RBI groundout before Hudson White tied things up in the sixth with a mammoth shot into the Hog Pen. The swing of the day, and perhaps the series, came via Peyton Holt as he sent a two-run missile over the left field wall to put the Hogs up 8-6. The final unanswered run would come an inning later on a Ben McLaughlin sac fly before Gabe Gaeckle came in to earn his seventh save of his freshman campaign.
Series MVG (Most Valuable Gorilla)
Hudson White: 5-12, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 1 K
White was the shining star of the Arkansas lineup during a weekend in which the Hog offense seemed to find its groove a little bit.
White, a transfer from Texas Tech, was named to the All-Big 12 team just a season ago after hitting 11 home runs at the catcher position, but he had only hit one longball all season after his opening-day homer as a Hog.
The home run was the name of the game this weekend for White, who seems to have found his power stroke after his two-run shot in Game 1 and electrifying game-tying swing in the series finale.
Having that kind of production out of the catcher position could be just the weapon that Arkansas needs heading into postseason play.
Series MVA (Most Valuable Arm)
Gage Wood: Save (2), 4.0 IP, 4K, 1 BB, 2 ER
It was just about two weeks ago that Wood made his first career start against Missouri State. After, Dave Van Horn said the sophomore was “getting ready to take someone’s job.”
Wood is as electric as it gets, with a big personality to compliment his success on the bump.
In Game 1 against the Bulldogs, Wood came in for the ninth to earn his second save of the season in an efficient inning of work. Wood was then called upon again in Game 3, where he held down a smoldering State offense during his three innings of relief after Mason Molina made it just one inning.
Between the save and the critical three innings of work that gave the Arkansas offense a chance to mount its comeback, Wood has earned MVA honors in Week 9 of SEC play.
Don’t forget Van Horn’s words either: someone’s job may be in danger soon.
Three Takeaways
A shakeup in the starting rotation seems likely
The Arkansas pitching staff has not looked like itself the last couple of weekends, with Tygart recording back-to-back rough starts and Molina getting beaten up recently as well.
Wood, or maybe somebody else, may get their shot soon, especially if Molina struggles again next weekend in College Station.
Ultimately, the final weekend of SEC play may decide how things play out in the postseason as far as the rotation goes. The Hogs will face one of the best offenses in the country in Texas A&M later this week.
Hogs are never out of it
Look, the Arkansas offense isn’t elite. Razorback fans know that, but it sure is nice knowing that even when the Arkansas pitching staff does have a hiccup, as it did twice this weekend, the offense does seem to possess some kind of clutch gene.
For whatever reason, the Arkansas order always seems to perform best when it’s down. Hog fans have seen it in other big games this year, like the Texas Tech seven-run comeback, and they saw it again in the series finale this past weekend.
The ability to rally as an offense is what separates elite teams from good teams, and while this Arkansas offense certainly isn’t elite, that ability could win it some games when the season is on the line.
Things never go as expected
Baseball is a funny game. It seems like any time you’re confident in one outcome, another one emerges.
That was the case this weekend, when two teams who sat near the bottom of the SEC offensively managed to each score five-plus runs in all three games.
I say this to say you just never know what’s going to happen, so, for now, Hog fans, just take that panic button and shove it in a drawer somewhere because you never know what’ll happen in baseball.
Other Series Notes and Factoids
- Will McEntire earned both of the wins this weekend despite only recording one out Friday night and giving up two hits and a walk.
- Gaeckle continues to be lights out. The true freshman pitched twice this weekend without giving up an earned run.
- Smith is now just 11 strikeouts away from breaking the all-time record at Arkansas.
- Holt continues to be “Mr. Consistent” in the Arkansas lineup after recording five hits over the weekend, including the go-ahead two-run shot in Game 3.
- Diggs seems to have lost the momentum he gained a weekend ago after coming up short in his critical pinch-hit at-bat in the series opener and striking out three times in the finale.
Up Next
The Razorbacks will not play a mid-week game. They are preparing to travel to College Station to face Texas A&M inside Blue Bell Park next weekend.