FAYETTEVILLE — It took the No. 8 Arkansas Razorbacks seven innings to knock out Auburn ace Casey Mize on Friday.
The Razorbacks delivered a quicker blow to the No. 15 Tigers' starter Saturday.
Arkansas chased Davis Daniel after two innings and battered the Auburn bullpen during a 13-2 win in front of 4,622 at Baum Stadium. The Razorbacks won the three-game series and will go for the sweep Sunday at 4 p.m. in a game that will be televised by the SEC Network.
Arkansas (23-9, 7-4 SEC) won the second game of a weekend series for the first time since its series sweep of Kentucky three weeks ago. The Razorbacks are undefeated in SEC openers this season, but lost the final two games of series against Florida and Ole Miss the previous two weekends.
"We talked about it after the game (Friday) night that we haven't won Game 2 in a while...and we needed to find us a way to get a win today," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. "They came out and did it."
The Razorbacks won the series by hitting well against the Auburn starter Daniel for the third time in the past two seasons. Daniel, a sophomore right-hander, allowed 4 runs - 3 earned - on 4 hits and 2 walks in the second-shortest start of his career.
He fell to 0-3 against Arkansas after starting a 7-3 loss to the Razorbacks last April in Auburn, Ala., and a 12-0 run-ruled loss at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala., last May.
"Before the game we watched some film from the (tournament) game last year," said Luke Bonfield, who went 2-for-5. "Chad (Spanberger) had three home runs off him last year, so that was kind of fun to recap."
Daniel has allowed 13 earned runs on 15 hits and 6 walks in 10 1/3 innings against Arkansas. He is 7-2 with a 4.14 ERA in his 21 other career starts.
"You remember what you do against pitchers," Bonfield said. "Being in this league for a while, you know how they're going to pitch you and you know the tendencies the pitchers have."
Arkansas singled in three of its first four at-bats against Daniel, the final a two-run hit to right field by Bonfield. It scored Jax Biggers and Eric Cole, who each singled and moved into scoring position when third base umpire Jeff Head inadvertently allowed runners to advance on a popup bunt attempt by the Razorbacks' three-hole hitter, Casey Martin.
Head ruled that Auburn third baseman Josh Anthony intentionally dropped Martin's bunt, but the runners should have been told to go back to first and second base, said Paul Guilli, the Southeastern Conference's coordinator of umpires.
Arkansas scored two more against Daniel in the second. Daniel committed an error trying to throw out Carson Shaddy at first base, which allowed Dominic Fletcher to score from second. Biggers added a sacrifice fly to score Jordan McFarland and give the Razorbacks a 4-0 lead.
Daniel did not return for the third inning and the Razorbacks blew the game open with four runs against two Auburn relievers. Left-hander Jack Owen failed to retire any of the four batters he faced and was pulled after he walked McFarland with the bases loaded. Cole and Martin later added two-out RBI hits in the inning against lefty Welby Malczewski to take an 8-0 lead.
"We fouled off a lot of pitches and early in counts took borderline pitches," Van Horn said. "...We worked some walks and put together a couple of big innings for us."
Auburn (23-9, 4-7) led off the fourth with consecutive home runs from Steven Williams and Brett Wright to pull within 8-2, but those were the only runs allowed by Arkansas starter Kacey Murphy, who scattered 5 hits and had a season-high 7 strikeouts in 7 innings.
Murphy, who improved to 4-2, had 84 pitches through five innings, but was efficient late with 10- and 11-pitch innings in the sixth and seventh. Murphy's long outing came on a night when the temperature was 33 degrees by the end of the game.
"For him to give us seven innings, that was what we needed," Van Horn said. "We needed seven innings out of him with a good lead, and he went out and pitched well in the sixth and seventh, and ended up throwing 105 pitches.
"I think he'd tell you that he's been sharper. He didn't really have command of his breaking ball. He was leaving it up and it almost looked like it was slipping out of his hand...but he came up with some big pitches."
Arkansas scored three in the sixth on Grant Koch's RBI double and bases-loaded walks by McFarland and Biggers. McFarland singled and Shaddy doubled in the eighth, and each later scored on a Biggers sac fly and Cole's RBI single.
Cole finished 3-for-6 with 2 RBI and raised his batting average to .343. Arkansas outhit Auburn, 17-6.