FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn wanted Cannon Chadwick to stay in the game and pitch the top of the 10th inning Tuesday against Alcorn State.
Because Van Horn already had burned the designated hitter's spot in the lineup, that meant Chadwick had to bat with one out in the bottom of the ninth.
Chadwick drew a walk in his first career at-bat as a Hog, moved up on Jax Biggers' second hit of the day, then chugged around third with the winning run on Jake Arledge's single to right field as the Razorbacks eked out a 3-2 victory before an estimated crowd of 622 on a 37-degree day at Baum Stadium.
Chadwick said he was a little surprised he was waved around third by base coach Tony Vitello.
"Yeah, I didn't know if he saw me run to second base, because I was slow as Christmas, so I didn't know what he was thinking," said Chadwick (2-0), who also picked up the victory.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (13-4) held off a determined Alcorn State (6-9) team that used five pitchers, did not commit an error and outhit the Hogs 11-9.
"We came here to try to get a win today," Alcorn Coach Bretton Richardson said. "We did everything we could to try to get one."
Van Horn spoke to his team in the bottom of the sixth inning, after Braves catcher Jason Sanez's two-out triple had given Alcorn State a 2-1 lead. He told the players to relax and that everyone was trying to do too much.
"We're playing a team that's not making any mistakes, and they're not walking us," Van Horn said he told them. "They're not giving us anything, and we're going to have to take it from them, and we're probably going to have to swing our way back into it."
Arledge had a big game with a 2 for 4 performance at the plate and two assists from the outfield, including throwing out Wallace Rios Jimenez at home for the first out of the game, then assisting on Jax Biggers' relay home to nail Walter Vives at the plate in the sixth inning.
"It was a good game because we gave ourselves a chance to win by making all the plays, even on a day that maybe we shouldn't have won," Van Horn said. "And that's a good thing."
Arledge, who extended his hitting streak to 13 games, tied the game at 2-2 in the seventh on a sacrifice fly. Jaxon Williams opened the inning with a single to center and moved to third on Biggers' one-out double to right field.
In the ninth, Chadwick took a low fastball for strike one against Anthony Acosta (0-1), watched a ball, took a swing and missed, then looked at three consecutive balls to get the free pass.
"It was a situation where our guy didn't realize he was a pitcher," Richardson said. "Yeah, that kind of hurt us a little bit."
Biggers singled to right field to push Chadwick to second base, then Arledge laced a 1-1 pitch through the right side against Alcorn State closer Conrado Skepple. Right fielder Wilbert Malphus had to take an extra step to get the ball out of his glove, and Chadwick scored standing up.
"I hit the ball and saw him peek in a little bit, and he was kind of hesitant around third," Arledge said of Chadwick's adventure in running home. "And then coach Vitello gave him the go-ahead sign.
"Usually when you get a walk-off, everybody celebrates with you. But this was pretty cool because everybody celebrated with Cannon. It was pretty cool."
Richardson changed his pitching plan shortly before the game, going with Jahborous Smith and announcing right-hander Daniel Belmont (1-0, 2.04 ERA) would instead start today.
Arkansas took a 1-0 lead in the second inning against the second Braves pitcher, Carlos Lopez. Jordan McFarland drew a one-out walk. After singles by Matt Burch and Williams, McFarland scored when the Braves mishandled Alex Gosser's pop-up, which was called an out on the infield fly rule by first base umpire Mark Winters.
Alcorn State tied the game in the third inning when nine-hole hitter Devin Walden reached on a one-out single against Dominic Taccolini and later scored on an RBI groundout.
Taccolini allowed 5 hits and struck out 3 batters in 4 innings. Van Horn said he likely would pick up some work in the weekend series against Mississippi State.
The Braves moved ahead on a single, double and triple in the sixth against Jake Reindl, although the Razorbacks limited the damage by getting an out at home plate.
Up next
ARKANSAS VS. ALCORN STATE
WHEN 3 p.m., today WHERE Baum Stadium RECORDS Arkansas 13-4; Alcorn State 6-9 SERIES Arkansas leads 2-0 RADIO Razorback Sports Network. Not all games will be carried by affiliates. Check local listings. TV SEC Network Plus
Sports on 03/15/2017