FAYETTEVILLE — It was Arkansas’ bullpen that needed to be bailed out Friday.

Louisiana Tech roughed up Arkansas’ relievers for the first time this season, but Aaron Murphree came through for his bullpen with a two-run, ninthinning home run that gave the Razorbacks a 9-8 victory at the Aggie Classic.

Arkansas pitchers allowed 13 hits Friday as four relievers followed left-hander Dallas Keuchel, who lasted three innings in his first start. Justin Wells, Brett Eisner and Cliff Springston combined to allow five runs on six hits, and Springston had a throwing error on an attempted pickoff. Arkansas’ bullpen has been stellar before Friday, allowing only 2 earned runs in 25 innings with a 0. 72 ERA in the Razorbacks’ 4-0 start. “Louisiana Tech is a good hitting team, but we didn’t pitch very well,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “It started with Keuchel, who was 2-0 on a lot of hitters. He had to just start throwing it in there, and they hit it pretty good. “ It wasn’t our best pitching effort, but we still found a way to win.” Keuchel earned his first start

1 after pitching 5 / 3 innings of hitless relief in Arkansas’ 9-4 victory over Wright State to begin the season. He allowed single runs in each of the first three innings before being replaced by Justin Wells, who allowed 3 hits and 2 runs in 3 innings. Brett Eibner moved from center field and pitched one scoreless inning before being charged with three runs in the eighth. Travis Hill pitched to one batter in the ninth and earned the victory thanks to Murphree’s two-run home run in the bottom half of the inning.

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Arkansas plays Texas A&M tonight, with freshman righthander Kendall Korbal of Houston making his second start for the Razorbacks. A large crowd is expected, and Korbal’s composure is sure to be tested against Texas A&M and freshman starter Barrett Loux, who is also from Houston.

Korbal went four innings in his first start, a 7-3 victory over Wright State.

“It’ll be a challenge for Kendall to keep his emotions under control, but we’ll do the best we can to get him prepared,” Van Horn said. “Texas A&M is a good team and their fans can crank it up with the best of them.

“ Our new guys haven’t seen any fans like these for baseball, and it’ll be interesting to see how they respond.”