FAYETTEVILLE — Chris Oliver and Brandon Moore combined to throw a scoreless shutout as the White team beat the Cardinal team 3-0 Wednesday in Game 4 of Arkansas' fall baseball series.
Oliver allowed four hits in 6 1/3 innings in his second start of the series, while Moore struck out two and allowed just one hit in 2 2/3 innings of relief. It was the third consecutive shutout for the White squad, which has gone 31 consecutive innings in the series without allowing a run.
The White team leads the best-of-seven game series 3-1.
"When you stop one team from scoring a run for 31 straight innings, that's pretty special," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. "On the other hand, I'm disappointed with the Cardinal team's offense. The at-bats aren't real competitive right now, almost like they're giving in. It doesn't seem like it's real important to them, which is disappointing.
"The pitching has been good. There have been a lot of strikes and they've been ahead in the count a lot. When you do that, you're going to win a lot of games."
Oliver, a sophomore right-hander, was rarely challenged in his time on the mound. After allowing five runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings of a Game 1 loss, the Farmington native never allowed more than one base-runner in an inning.
"He was a lot better," Van Horn said. "His first outing, he gave up five hits to the first five hitters, and he was down two or three runs before he got in the dugout.
"Today he had a chance to redeem himself because he knew this was his last outing of the fall. He went out and he was lights-out for six innings."
Moore worked out of a jam in the top of the ninth. After allowing a one-out double by Joe Serrano and hitting Tyler Spoon with a pitch, Moore got Dominic Ficociello to ground out to end the game and strand runners at the corners.
"It was high-pressure," Moore said. "It was almost like the spring and that's kind of what you want. Dominic is a good hitter and I just tried to trick him. I don't throw a slider very often, but I did and he kind of rolled it over, and I was able to get him out."
Willie Schwanke, who led off the inning with a double, broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the sixth, scoring on an error by Cardinal third baseman Jordan Farris. After Garrett Rucker reached on a fielder's choice and Brett McAfee singled, Jacob Mahan added a two-run double in the bottom of the seventh to extend the White's lead to 3-0.
Mahan didn't start on Wednesday because of a late class that made him miss part of the game. He entered the game in the fifth inning as a replacement at second base.
"He got here and stretched a little bit, got him a double to score a couple of runs," Van Horn said. "He's a pretty good hitter. We've seen a big improvement in him from last fall to this fall."
After picking up a Game 1 win, freshman right-hander Trey Killian took the loss on Wednesday. The Mountain Home native pitched 5 innings, allowing an unearned run on four hits. He struck out four batters.
"I thought he did pretty good," Van Horn said. "He struggled in the first inning and threw a lot of pitches, but still got out of the inning without giving up a run. I thought that was impressive."
Landon Simpson pitched 1 inning in relief for the Cardinal team, allowing one run on one hit. Colin Poche pitched 2 innings, allowing one run on two hits.
The teams will meet again Thursday with a first pitch scheduled for 3 p.m.