FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas scored two runs in each the seventh and eighth innings, coming from behind for a 6-5 win over Texas State Wednesday night at Baum Stadium.
Bo Bigham led off the eighth inning with a triple for the No. 22 Razorbacks and scored when Jarrod McKinney followed with a triple of his own. McKinney scored on a Matt Reynolds sacrifice fly two batters later to give Arkansas its first lead of the game.
“If you look at the scoreboard, every inning they scored, we scored,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “They scored run the last time and we scored two the last couple of times. We finally got on top of them and we were getting to the point in the game where we didn’t want to use our pitchers for the weekend.
“It was nice for that game not to go into extra innings, I’ll tell you that.”
The Razorbacks (20-8) struggled prior to the eighth inning to score with runners in scoring position, stranding nine runners for the game. McKinney’s triple was the first of his career.
“I was just trying to swing and at least get the ball to the second baseman,” said McKinney, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning. “Fortunately, the ball carried pretty good and I was able to hit a triple.
“We’ve had a lot of one-run games this year and it feels good to be getting back on track.”
had scored two in the bottom of the seventh, tying the game on Dominic Ficociello’s two-out RBI double. Texas State retook the lead in the top of the eighth, however, when first baseman Kyle Robinson’s throw went awry to third base, allowing Joey Fuda to score.
Texas State (19-9) took a 2-0 lead on back-to-back solo home runs from Jeff McVaney and Casey Kalenkosky to lead off the top of the second inning, but Arkansas pulled within a run in the bottom half of the inning on a Robinson home run.
The Bobcats extended their lead to 3-1 in the top of the fifth, but Arkansas once again answered in the bottom half of the inning on a Sam Bates RBI double to score Reynolds. The Razorbacks attempted to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth, but James McCann was thrown out trying to steal home plate.
“We had a bunch of chances to score runs today,” Bigham said. “We hit about three balls on the screws and just right at somebody. That’s just baseball. If you keep swinging and hitting the ball hard, it will find a hole and eventually you’ll score some runs.”
Arkansas starter Ryne Stanek went three innings in his first work in more than two weeks. The solo home runs were the only hits given up by the freshman right-hander, who struck out four batters.
Colby Suggs picked up his first career win by recording the final two outs of the eighth inning, while Nolan Sanburn picked up his fourth save with a perfect ninth inning.
The Razorbacks will LSU this weekend. The three-game series begins Friday night with a first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m.