FAYETTEVILLE — Nothing is easy for Arkansas these days, but the Razorbacks managed a victory Saturday before the biggest crowd of the season.

Justin Wells pitched into the eighth inning in his first start and Arkansas scored twice in the seventh to beat Auburn 5-4 before 7, 387 at Baum Stadium. Stephen Richards earned his first save by pitching out of a jam in the eighth and striking out four in two innings.

Arkansas (17-12, 3-7 SEC ) can take the series with a victory today after losing 5-2 in the opener Friday.

Wells’ solid showing was a triumph for the junior from Bryant, who struggled during the fall and was relegated to a mop-up role when the season began. Arkansas finally turned to Wells as a starter following his strong relief performances against LSU and Vanderbilt, and he left the mound Saturday holding a 5-3 lead.

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Auburn (19-12, 5-6 ) pulled within 5-4 on a two-out single by Kevin Patterson before Richards struck out Brian Fletcher with runners in scoring position to end the inning. Richards then struck out two and retired the side in order in the ninth to preserve the victory.

“I thought it was tremendous,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said of Wells’ performance. “He took us into the eighth inning and gave us a chance to win and save our bullpen. If we wouldn’t have played good defense or pitched like we did, we would have lost that ball game because Auburn played extremely well, too.”

Wells (2-0 ) finished with 5 strikeouts and walked only 1 batter in 7 innings. He retired the Tigers in order in three of the first four innings and did not allow more than one run in any inning.

Wells credits Arkansas pitching coach Dave Jorn with helping him find a delivery that has been effective for him in his past three outings.

“Coach Jorn has definitely earned his paycheck working with me,” said Wells, who played two years at Texarkana (Texas ) Junior College before transferring to Arkansas. “We finally found something when I dropped my arm angle against LSU, and I think I’m going to stick with it.”

Each team had three hits, and freshman Brett Eibner led the Razorbacks with two. Auburn left fielder Brian Fletcher robbed Ryan Cisterna of a home run, but the Tigers helped Arkansas score twice in the third on two throwing errors by third baseman Joseph Sanders.

“We gave them two runs there in the third,” Auburn Coach Tom Slater said. “Their leadoff guy hits a routine grounder and we throw it away, then we screw up fielding a bunt and throw another one away. Two errors lead to two runs, and [Friday ] we didn’t make any errors. That was the difference.”

Auburn tied the game 3-3 in the top of the seventh before Arkansas regained the lead with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Logan Forsythe hit a two-out RBI single off reliever Scott Shuman, and Sean Jones had a sacrifice fly to score Cisterna, who led off the inning with a double. Ben Tschepikow added a single and moved into scoring position by hustling to second on a passed ball.

Arkansas had to alter its lineup Saturday with shortstop Tim Smalling moving to first base to replace Andy Wilkins. Wilkins pulled a muscle while batting Friday and will likely miss a few more games.

Arkansas appeared headed for more bad luck when Fletcher took a home run away from Cisterna with a leaping catch, and after Smalling hit a triple following a pickoff of Eibner at first base. But the Razorbacks put together four hits to go ahead 5-3 in the seventh, and the pitching of Wells and Richards made the lead hold up.