FAYETTEVILLE — Isaiah Campbell worked 7.2 innings and struck out 10 Mississippi State Bulldogs to lead the Arkansas Razorbacks to a 5-3 win Thursday night at Baum-Walker Stadium.
The redshirt junior didn’t walk a batter and scattered five hits with two earned runs on 105 pitches. Campbell gave up a solo home run in the fifth inning to Rowdey Jordan, but got back in his groove for the sixth and seventh innings before needing relief ahead of the third out in the eighth.
“I thought he was outstanding,” said Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn. “At the end of six innings he kind of made the comment he started feeling a little bit tired. We punched in some runs and it’s almost like he got a second wind out there and we thought, ‘well, if he can get us through the sixth’ and he did. He said I think I can go another and when he got us through the seventh real quick he said ‘hey I don’t want to come out yet.’ No walks, 10 strikeouts, I mean, what more could you want? And limited one of the best hitting teams, if not the best hitting team in the league to five hits. That’s a great outing.”
Closer Matt Cronin got the final out of the eighth inning and closed out his eighth game of the season, though he did give up a solo shot in the ninth. However, the junior struck out three over 1.1 innings of work.
The Hogs are 28-10 overall with a 10-6 mark in Southeastern Conference play, tied for second in the SEC West with Mississippi State, who are 32-7 overall and 10-6 in conference play. The Texas A&M Aggies own first place with a 10-5-1 record.
The Razorbacks and Bulldogs play game two Friday at 6:30 p.m. with a 6:00 p.m. pregame on Fox Sports Radio 1400 AM.