FAYETTEVILLE — Luke Bonfield got the ice bath after his walk-off single in the ninth as Arkansas rallied past Vanderbilt 4-3 on Friday night at Baum Stadium.
The real ice – and maybe a little fire – came in the second inning when Dominic Fletcher struck out on three straight swings and misses.
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn was waiting with an icy stare when Fletcher trudged back to the dugout, then turned to deliver some fire to the freshman center-fielder after he made it past him to the dugout floor.
“That first at bat wasn't real pretty,” Van Horn said. “But then he hit a hard line drive his next time, then he put it in the screen on his third at bat. That was pretty big.”
Indeed, Fletcher blasted a two-run homer to make it 3-3 in the seventh inning. The lefty freshman cranked a Patrick Raby change-up into the screen protecting the video board in right center.
Fletcher flashed a huge smile when asked about Van Horn's comments about the ugly first at bat, swings at pitches mostly a good foot outside.
“It was not pretty,” he said. “When you come up early, it can be tough to see. It's a tough part of the game. You are in the shade and it's tough to see the ball.”
Oh, Fletcher is seeing the ball plenty good for the most part. It was his third home run in as many games. He blasted two at Tennessee. The California product has nine this season. There had been talk about hitting the “freshman wall” in a slump through the middle part of the SEC schedule.
“It wasn't a freshman wall,” Fletcher said. “I just needed to make some adjustments.”
The Hogs made a big adjustment. They had lost the opener in three straight SEC series before handling Vandy.
“It was a big win for our team,” Van Horn said. “We'd been a little tired. We had been sputtering along. We are a good enough team to win a few games. We'd played nine games in 11 days and that didn't help. But I thought we had more energy tonight.”
There was a burst in the ninth from Jax Biggers, the team's leading hitter in SEC games coming in with a .324 average. Biggers turned a one-out flare near the line in left into a hustling double.
“It was close at second, but with one out he had to go,” Van Horn said. “He was running hard out of the box.”
There was some irony in the opposite-field hit. The Hogs had plastered some balls throughout the night, with three blasts for warning track outs. Grant Koch was out on a 390-foot drive and Eric Cole was robbed by the right fielder on a catch with the glove high on the wall to end the eighth inning with two runners on.
“We finally got one to fall,” Van Horn said. “We did hit some really hard tonight and so did they. But it seems like we hadn't been getting anything to fall for the last couple of weeks. We didn't against Tennessee last weekend. So that's baseball. It evens out.”
There were two pitching heroes. Trevor Stephan settled into the game after giving up a two-run homer in the second, giving the Hogs a quality start with 11 strikeouts in seven innings. Kevin Kopps (3-0) got the final six outs, bailing out Jake Reindl's shaky relief against two batters.
“That was six straight balls from Reindl,” Van Horn said. “It was late and the game was tied. We just couldn't go any longer. Kevin came in and threw strikes. His cutter was really on.”
Kopps got some help with Grant Koch's pickoff to second on a botched bunt, then the Hogs turned a nifty double play. Chad Spanberger snared a two-hopper at first, fired to second and then Kopps was waiting for the return throw.
“That's a tough double play to turn,” Van Horn said. “So that was a big play.”
The Hogs chased after Bonfield to douse him with the ice bath. They danced all the way from first base to second base to get him good. Van Horn seemed to grow tired of the celebration. He waved them to his post-game conference in left field.
“I think he wanted us to celebrate, but he also wanted to remind us it was just Friday night,” said Bonfield, who had a solo homer in the first.
“We get to celebrate a little, but we know this is going to be another tough one tomorrow. It's going to be two Friday night starters going again and it'll be like that Sunday, too.”
True, both teams flipped their Friday night starting pitchers to Saturday because of short rest. The Hogs will pitch Blaine Knight. Vandy goes with Kyle Wright, perhaps a top five pick in the draft. Both have 82 strikeouts this season.
It's another 6 p.m. start. The shade could be a bother for Fletcher again.
Just kidding.
It's a guess that he might see the ball a little better at the outset in game two. The only wall the freshman sees right now is the one just past the warning track.