Wayne Hrozek said it was a big adrenaline rush when he saw his two-run double clear the head of Ole Miss right fielder Jordan Henry and give Arkansas a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Rebels in 10 innings Friday night at Baum Stadium. For Arkansas, it was an emotional release.

Two weeks of frustration at the plate seemed to have come to a dramatic end, as the Razorbacks clinched the Southeastern Conference Western Division title in front of 9, 812.

“ It felt good, ” said Hrozek, who produced Arkansas’ first game- ending hit of the year.

“ It feels like you got over the hump right there, ” Arkansas first baseman Danny Hamblin said. “ To score three runs in the bottom of the tenth. This is what you dream for. You can’t ever give up. ”

ADVERTISEMENT

But there wasn’t much hope after Arkansas failed to score after the second inning. Ole Miss wasn’t much better — producing only one run in nine innings against Razorbacks starting pitcher Jess Todd. But Arkansas’ late-season offensive slump seemed as if it was going to continue.

In their first 21 Southeastern Conference games, the Razorbacks averaged 7. 8 runs per game. But over their last eight Arkansas has been unable to keep up with that rate of production, and in fact has fallen considerably short of it. The Hogs have produced only 4. 75 runs per game during that stretch, and Arkansas’ record over the last two weeks was 2-5 entering Friday night’s game.

The Razorbacks (38-17, 18-11 SEC ) encountered many of the same problems that have afflicted them during their lateseason slump Friday. They failed to put the ball in play — striking out 12 times. And they weren’t able to generate the hits they needed when runners were on base. Case in point: Brian Walker hit into a double play with the bases loaded to end the seventh inning.

Walker walked back to the dugout with a pained expression on his face — the frustration coming to a boil since it began simmering in the first inning.

It was then, at the beginning of the game, when the Razorbacks seemed to have botched a potentially big rally in the first inning when Arkansas scored its first run of the game. After Jake Dugger led off with a double and Ben Tschepikow followed with a single, it looked as if the Razorbacks were going to break out of their hitting malaise and issue a big opening salvo. But Dugger was thrown out the plate by on ground ball hit by Logan Forsythe. And on Casey Coon’s RBI single

that scored Tschepikow, Forsythe was nailed at third for the second out. Moments later, Brad Secrist struck out looking, and Ole Miss (34-21, 15-4 SEC ) escaped relatively unscathed — allowing just a single run. From that point forward, Arkansas threatened to score only once more before the tenth — watching another potential big inning bite the dust on the double-play groundball hit by Walker.

“ We maybe started to doubt ourselves, ” said Jake Dugger. “ We were losing the close ones. ”

But in a matter of moments that changed. Down 3-1 after Ole Miss pushed two across in the top of the tenth, the Razorbacks finally broke through. Cody Satterwhite walked Brian Walker and Jake Dugger in succession. A throwing error by catcher Brett Basham allowed Dugger to advance to third base before Tschepikow drove him in with a sacrifice fly to cut Ole Miss’ lead to one run.

Seconds later, Hrozek, who came in to replace Secrist in the eighth inning, gave his team an emotional lift and the victory.

“ I’m proud of our team for hanging in there, ” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “ We had been leaving runner after runner. I said, ‘ Something is going to happen. Don’t quit. Hang in there. ’ And they won the West tonight. ”