FAYETTEVILLE — Most pitchers spend the late innings sitting quietly in the corner of the bench while their team is batting.

Not Arkansas junior righthander Justin Wells.

“You can’t talk to that kid,” catcher Ryan Cisterna said. “He’s walking back and forth. He never sits down. He needs to get a drink of water or something. He’s not weird. He’s just a competitor.”

Wells paced in the dugout and paced himself through nine effective innings Saturday and kept the Razorbacks close enough to finish off Tennessee 5-4 in 10 innings.

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Sure, the Bryant product by way of Texarkana (Texas ) College served up a game-tying, ninth-inning home run to Volunteers shortstop Danny Lima, and he tied a season high with 3 walks, allowed 8 hits and 4 earned runs.

But Wells isn’t a pitcher who’s aesthetically pleasing on the eyes. If he pitches ugly, results like Saturday are fine.

The Razorbacks have won in four of his past five SEC appearances — including three consecutive starts — with Wells getting three decisions.

The overall stats aren’t eyepopping with a 4. 50 ERA and 9 walks in the stretch.

But Wells also ate up 36 innings, topped by his season bests with 9 innings and 9 strikeouts Saturday.

If his work on the mound weren’t enough, Wells spent part of his free time bouncing up and down like an expectant father.

“The first four or five innings I know it’s a marathon, so I sit and relax, but after about the sixth inning it’s just adrenaline because your body’s physically getting tired,” said Wells, who is 3-0 with a 4. 66 ERA. “I’m just so ready. It’s hard to contain it sometimes, and I can’t sit down between innings.

“ I feel like a boxer heading into a match.”

Tennessee landed the equivalent of some hard jabs Saturday that bloodied Wells but didn’t knock him down.

The Volunteers hit a pair of home runs and pressured Wells most of the game, stranding nine runners.

“He’s all about location and movement, and a lot of a couple of other things,” said a smiling Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn, who agreed with Cisterna that Wells wasn’t at his best Saturday.

Then again, maybe this was what he does best, surviving throughout the game and bursting with energy at the end.

“A lot pitchers between innings will sit down and nobody comes near them,” Van Horn said.

“He’ll go and fire up a guy or say, ‘Come on, let’s go and get a win. I need a run. Get me one run.’ I love that mentality. It’s kind of throwback, old school.

“ Kids these days are so laidback, if you can get two or three kids like that on your team with that kind of makeup and mentality, it’s nice having it.”