SEC Baseball

Auburn cruises past Arkansas in finale

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RYAN MCGEENEY --05-12-2012-- Razorbacks pitcher Tyler Wright warms up during the second inning of Saturday afternoon's game against Auburn after replacing starting pitcher Nolan Sanburn.

— Arkansas coaches spent 42 minutes talking to their team on the Baum Stadium field following their game Saturday, signifying their disappointment in the club's weekend.

The No. 20 Razorbacks gave up 18 hits and at least one run in the first eight innings earlier in the day and lost 12-5 to Auburn, capping their third consecutive series loss at home.

"It was just a disappointing day, kind of a disappointing weekend right after finals," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. "You can make excuses about everything else, but we just didn’t play very good.

"It’s been a big hit here or the hit we didn’t get, or a pitch here, or a play - a lot of tight games until today. That wasn’t a tight game."

Auburn (28-23, 12-15 SEC) was hot from the start Saturday, showing no signs of a hangover from the final at-bat loss it suffered Friday night. Jay Gonzalez led off the top of the first with a double off Arkansas starter Nolan Sanburn - the first of four extra-base hits in the game for the Tigers.

Gonzalez, Ryan Tella and Bobby Andrews each recorded three hits for Auburn, which made a strong case for its inclusion into next month's NCAA Tournament despite playing the majority of the game with coach John Pawlowski watching from the locker room after a fourth inning ejection.

Arkansas (35-17, 13-14) twice tied the game but never led its home finale.

Dominic Ficociello's first inning home run tied the game 1-1 and the Razorbacks tied the game 5-5 in the bottom of the fourth inning, scoring on a Jacob Morris safety squeeze bunt and a Jacob Mahan RBI single.

Pawlowski was thrown out for arguing Bo Bigham was out on a close play at first base. Bigham later scored on Morris' bunt.

But Arkansas' bullpen couldn't stop Auburn's bats. The Tigers regained the lead on Andrews' RBI single off Brandon Moore in the fifth inning.

Auburn scored twice more in the sixth and added three runs to take a 11-5 lead after loading the bases with no outs in the top of the seventh, chasing reliever Trent Daniel.

"We feel like we’re not playing our best baseball and we’re not acting like we want to be here, but we feel like there is much more in the tank that," said third baseman Matt Reynolds, who extended his on-base streak to 35 games with a first inning double. "We just need to show more energy at the field and play with a little more heart.”

Arkansas used seven different pitchers in the loss after Ryne Stanek was unable to throw with a back injury.

Sanburn allowed three runs on four hits in a one-inning start and Ty Wright was chased in the third.

Moore, who pitched 3 1/3 innings in Thursday's game, was charged with the loss Saturday, allowing two runs on four hits in 2 2/3 innings of relief.

"The first couple pitchers out of the chute have to give us four or five innings, and they gave us an inning each," Van Horn said. "We’re already down because of Stanek, trying to get through the weekend without him, we had to have some guys step up and give us some innings so we didn’t have to bring in our guys so early.

"These are guys that are talking about playing at the next level. You’ve got to be able play at this level first."

Slade Smith, who gave up a ninth inning game-winning hit to Jake Wise on Friday, picked up the win for the Tigers, pitching two scoreless innings of relief.

Justin Bryant earned his fifth save of the season, pitching the final 3 1/3 innings for Auburn. Bryant, the team's designated hitter, also added 2 RBIs at the plate.

Arkansas will face Louisiana Tech on Tuesday in North Little Rock before closing the regular season with a three-game series at Tennessee beginning next Thursday.