FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas — Three Memphis errors in the fifth inning helped the Arkansas Razorbacks plate seven runs and defeat the Tigers 10-3 Wednesday night at Baum-Walker Stadium.
The Hogs trailed 2-1 heading into the fifth inning, but the big inning led to seven straight batters reachin base, three walks, and four singles — all part of the recipe to help Arkansas take an 8-2 lead.
“It was a little frustrating in the first inning tonight,” said Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn. “We didn’t come through with the big hit. We had a run in with one out and we end up loading the bases. We have an infield fly and I don’t remember the third out. One out, runner on third, you’ve got to get a runner in. That was really frustrating.”
Freshman Trey Harris earned a walk with two outs in the fifth. Then, Casey Opitz managed to get on base due to a pinch-hit walk. Jack Kenley drove in two with a hit up the middle, and Jacob Nesbit followed it up with a walk. Christian Franklin and Heston Kjerstad had two more runs to cap off the fifth inning.
It was the second-most runs scored in an inning by the Razorbacks in 2019 and the fourth time to score four-plus runs in an inning. Since the USC series, Arkansas batters are .308 (16-for-52) and have driven in 20 of their last 28 runs with two away.
“I thought we did a really did a nice job of battling a lot of at-bats and really got their pitch counts up,” said Van Horn. “We put together a lot of long at-bats, a lot of full counts, a lot of foul balls. We ended up walking I think nine times, struck out six. Took advantage of a couple of errors and got a few big hits.”
Freshman pitcher Patrick Wicklander had three innings of work and gave up two earned runs on three hits with a walk and fanning four. Wicklander allowed just one baserunner the rest of his outing after giving up a two-run home run in the second inning.
The Razorbacks remain at Baum-Walker Stadium where they will host Stony Brook for a three-game series starting Friday with a 3:00 p.m. first pitch. Catch the action on Fox Sports Radio 1400 Texarkana with the pregame at 2:30 p.m.