FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas pitchers continued to pile on to their Division I strikeout lead by racking up 11 strikeouts in Tuesday’s 9-7 win over the University of Central Arkansas at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Left-handed starter Colin Fisher struck out four in his three-inning stint to get the strikeout parade underway.
Right-handed relievers Cooper Dossett and Gage Wood had one strikeout apiece among their combined seven outs.
Closer Gabe Gaeckle recorded two strikeouts during his two-inning save. That included one looking against Mason King on three pitches for the final out of the game with the bases loaded.
The Razorbacks entered the game with 163 strikeouts and an average of 14.8 strikeouts per nine innings.
Arkansas left-hander Stone Hewlett had a rare four-strikeout inning in the seventh as one runner reached base on a wild pitch after swinging and missing.
Hewlett struck out lefty batter Jagger Schattle to open the frame, then Drew Sturgeon went down looking, though he complained to home plate umpire Timothy Cordill about the call most of the way to the dugout.
Preston Curtis struck out swinging but the ball eluded catcher Ryder Helfrick for a wild pitch, allowing Curtis to reach first base.
Hewlett closed out the inning by fanning Bryce Cermenelli with Curtis at second base after a stolen base.
Slamming grand
Wehiwa Aloy’s third-inning grand slam was the third of the season and also the Hogs’ third in the last eight days.
Hudson Polk and Jayson Jones both hit grand slams in last Tuesday’s 21-1 win over Grambling State.
Aloy’s grand slam had a 106 mph exit velocity and traveled an estimated 442 feet into the Hog Pen beyond the left-field wall.
Ben McLaughlin’s three-run home run in the same inning traveled an estimated 420 feet just to the left of center field and left the bat at 102 mph.
Ouch!
UCA leadoff man AJ Mendolia was hit in the left shoulder by a Colin Fisher pitch to open the third inning, a not-uncommon occurrence for the Bears, as proven by two-hole hitter Zeb Allen taking a ball off his upper-right shoulder moments later in the left-handed batter’s box.
The Bears opened the day in a four-way tie for fourth nationally with 31 hit by pitches along with Appalachian State, California-Irvine and LSU.
Mendolia, who scored on a Jagger Schattle single, took his team-high sixth hit by pitch while Allen was hit for the third time.
In the fifth inning, Bears catcher Casey Shipley took a Cooper Dossett pitch off his face that clearly shook him up and sent him right out of the game. He was replaced by pinch runner Cooper White and then at catcher by Rogers native Hayden Seldomridge.
UCA Coach Nick Harlan said Shipley would be further examined but it appeared his nose was broken.
“He thought [the pitch] was going to break more than it did but it stayed up,” Harlan said.
First earned
Arkansas freshman Colin Fisher and sophomore Cooper Dossett both allowed their first earned runs of the season in their fourth and third appearances, respectively.
The left-handed Fisher entered with a 0.00 ERA in 8 1/3 innings while the righty Dossett had worked 2 innings.
The Bears’ Bryce Cermenelli gave Fisher his first with a one-out RBI single in the second inning, then Jagger Schattle added a one-out RBI single up the middle in the third inning.
Fisher worked 3 innings, allowing 2 earned runs on 4 hits and no walks with 4 strikeouts.
Dossett threw a clean fourth inning before giving up two earned runs on a walk and hit batter in the Bears’ four-run fifth.
Fair or foul?
With two runners on base in the third inning, Arkansas leadoff man Ross Lovich hit an opposite-field shot well down the line in left field. UCA left fielder Preston Curtis, who had been playing in left center, made a long, sustained run over into the corner but he could not get to the ball, which landed close to the foul line and also just short of the wall.
The ball was ruled foul on the spot and a replay review confirmed it landed several inches wide of the chalk.
Down two
UCA’s 2-0 lead in the third inning was the first deficit of two-plus runs for Arkansas in more than two weeks.
The only other time this season the Razorbacks have been behind by more than two runs had been during a 7-3 loss to James Madison on the Sunday of Opening Weekend on Feb. 18.