FAYETTEVILLE — For the second weekend in a row, Arkansas’ freshman pitching has answered the call in a big series.
Left hander Patrick Wicklander gave up just 2 runs on 4 hits in 5 2/3 innings as No. 7 Arkansas routed No. 18 Tennessee 15-3 Saturday night before over 9,842 fans at Baum-Walker Stadium.
“Just a really, really good start by Patrick Wicklander,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn. “A true freshman, and I think for the second week in a row in conference play he’s gone out and given us an opportunity to kind of get our feet underneath us and see what new had to do to score some runs against the opposition. He just pitched great. He had a good fastball and a really good breaking ball, mixed in some changeups.”
Like last weekend for freshman Connor Noland, Arkansas’ offense gave Wicklander some breathing room with four runs in the both the third and fourth innings.
Arkansas jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third inning when McFarland, filling in at designated hitter for the injured Matt Goodheart, homered on the first pitch he saw and Martin later hit a three-run homer.
“When (Wicklander) walked out there for that fourth inning and all of a sudden he had that four-run lead, I’m sure he probably relaxed just a little bit and felt like, ‘Hey, I don’t have to be perfect with every pitch,’” Van Horn said.
Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello was impressed with Wicklander, but not surprised as he shut down the Vols (31-13, 9-11 SEC).
“He had command and that is kind of the deal,” Vitello said. “If he does, he’s special. I knew that from watching him prior to and I know that we also did some things that weren’t up to par against him because he has got phenomenal stuff.
“You have got to command it and he did it right out of the get-go. From that point on, he kind of rolled and there are not a lot of places to hit it against this team. All in all, it was a good combination for a start and then he turned it over to some guys.”
Wicklander (4-1, 4.03) was not overpowering while throwing his 91 pitches, 56 of which were strikes. He struck out seven batters and walked two.
“I just try to keep an even-keeled (velocity),” Wicklander said. “I’m not a big velo-check guy. I’ll usually ask after my outing, but I just try to make pitches out there.”
Wicklander has pitched much better as a starter this season than as a reliever. Arkansas (33-11, 14-6) has wins in all three of his SEC starts against Auburn, Mississippi State and Tennessee.
“I don’t hate it,” Wicklander said of starting. “I mean, I would prefer being the starter but I just do what’s best for the team…I felt really good about it…I just wanted to keep the ball rolling.”
Wicklander had not pitched in eight days, his longest stretch between appearances this season. Van Horn thought the rest helped him.
“We talked about that this week...that this is going to be the longest break he’s had since the season started and let’s see how this goes,” Van Horn said. “I thought he had really good velocity and he had good stuff.”
Arkansas will start Noland in Sunday’s 4 p.m. series finale that will be televised on SEC Network and give the Razorbacks a chance to tie Vanderbilt for the SEC overall lead.
Noland (2-2, 4.60) is coming off going a career-long 7 2/3 innings last weekend in a win over Mississippi State.