FAYETTEVILLE — Seven pitches and six balls into Arkansas freshman Connor Noland’s start on Saturday, he was already getting a visit from Razorbacks pitching coach Matt Hobbs.
Three batters in, he had the bases loaded, Kole Ramage was warming up in the bullpen and Missouri ace TJ Sikkema and his 0.46 ERA were getting ready to take the mound with a likely lead.
But Noland escaped unscathed by throwing two double-play grounders, one that was muffed and another that came about via runner’s interference, to keep Missouri off the scoreboard.
Arkansas rewarded Noland’s escape by using fellow freshman Christian Franklin’s three RBIs, including a clutch two-out, two-strike, two-run single in the fourth inning that proved to be the game-winner as the Razorbacks took down Missouri 4-3 at Baum-Walker Stadium.
“I was throwing the ball high,” Noland said. “Just a little mechanical error. (Hobbs) had to fix that a little bit. He just told me to settle down and settle in and throw strikes and that really helped me set that back up.”
It turned out to be huge as Noland was able to go 4 2/3 innings while giving up only a fifth-inning RBI single, four hits, fanning four and walking only one.
Missouri head coach Steve Bieser, whose squad lost 2-0 on Friday, lamented the missed opportunity.
“We just let this thing slip away in the first inning,” Beiser said. “That was a big blow to our team. We didn’t respond very well to that adversity. The wind came out of our sails after not getting anything in the first inning. It came back to bite us and took us a while to get going.”
Noland came within one out of getting his first win of the season with Ramage (4-0) pitching three innings, Kevin Kopps facing two batters in the eighth and closer Matt Cronin handling the rest.
“It’s always tough to pull a guy, especially when they need one more out when we have the lead to possibly get a win,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “But I guess on the other hand, you don’t want to leave him in too long. That’s kind of what we did last time and he got hit around a little bit, although it was a wind-blown home run that got him out of the game.
“We had such a fresh bullpen, the games are so important that I think Connor would tell you he gets it. It’s not about him, it’s about the team.”
Noland rebounded in good shape as Sikkema (2-1, 1.77 ERA) was settling in to go the distance while throwing 122 pitches and fanning 10, giving up six hits and three earned runs.
“The second was OK, the third and fourth were really good,” Van Horn said. “He had his breaking ball rolling. Even in the fifth, I thought he threw the ball pretty good to the first hitter or two. He recovered. Did a tremendous job and he ate up some innings there.
“It would have been bad for us to burn up a bunch of our bullpen guys when we’re trying to catch a guy like Sikkema and he’s going the whole game and they’re leaving their bullpen ready to try to win the series on Sunday if we don’t come back and win. For Connor to give us an opportunity to get into the game a little bit, and then for us to get the lead and to win it, ended up being huge for us.”
Van Horn noted that Hobbs’ visit to the mound was to talk mechanics, not motivate Noland.
“I just told him to go out there and calm him down a bit and settle him down a little bit,” Van Horn said. “I would say that he was talking a little bit of mechanics with him about keeping his front side closed. He was kind of running away from his arm and leaving everything up and out, and that’s not him.
“The first pitch (after) he throws it right where he wants it and he kind of got it together after that. There was no motivation in that talk, there was trying to get some things straightened out mechanically because he has got good stuff.
“Sometimes you just get out of whack a little bit, a little hyped up and what a great crowd and beautiful day and the kid wanted to do well. I just think he needed to calm down a little bit and go back to what got him pitching on the weekend and that’s staying under control and he did it.”
Arkansas (16-2, 2-0), which was out-hit 7-6, plated single runs in the first and second innings via a throwing error and Franklin’s sacrifice fly.
Franklin would push that lead to 4-0 in the fourth when he came through with his clutch hit that gave him 19 RBIs this season.
“The base hit was huge because we ran a safety bunt the hitter before,” Van Horn said. “The pitch has to be kind of down the middle away. You have to bunt the ball down the first base line. If you don’t like the pitch, don’t bunt it.
“It was a fastball down and it is almost impossible for a right handed hitter to bunt that ball down the line. We don’t get anything out of it, but an out. Then Franklin goes down 1-2 count, fouls off a pitch, it either a change up or a curve ball. I’m not sure what it was, something off-speed, and he smoked it right back through the middle.
“It was a big relief to at least get one of those in. I would have felt bad if we didn’t. I would have felt like I shouldn’t have bunted him, but everybody has got to execute. Pitcher did a good job of locating the pitch in, should have taken it, but Franklin kind of pulled us out right there.”
Missouri (11-7, 0-2) would chip away with runs in the fifth and two against Ramage in the eighth before Cronin came on for the final inning.
“It was too little too late,” Beiser said. “In conference games you have to be sharp for nine innings. We weren’t very competitive with our at bats. But what can you say about TJ (Sikkema). He didn’t have his best stuff today, but still battled all the way through this game.”
Franklin also ended the afternoon by leaping to take a foul ball out of the stands and hand Cronin his sixth save.
“It was right in front of my face,” Franklin said. “Running over there I had an idea it was going to be a close play maybe so I wanted to get over there and give myself the best chance to catch the ball. And as it was coming down that fan was reaching over with his glove and luckily it went a little bit over his glove and I was able to make that catch.”
Franklin celebrated after the catch with what he called a hype dance.
“Some of my teammates actually thought I was getting mad at the fan but I wasn’t,” Franklin said. “I got kind of hyped and I was like ‘Let’s go! Let’s go! I was just trying to hype up the guys a little bit.”
Van Horn was certainly happy to see Franklin come up with the baseball off the bat of Missouri designated hitter Peter Zimmerman.
“What a great catch,” Van Horn said. “You never know what is going to happen. That was a big, strong kid at the plate. I was watching BP both days and he was launching balls. Anything could happen on a day like this when the wind is blowing out and the air is thin and you can still miss hit a ball, but if you catch it just right, it can get out of the park.”
Arkansas will go for the sweep of the three-game series on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. with Cody Scroggins taking the mound for the Razorbacks.