Arkansas has come to rue the fourth and eighth innings after Alabama packed 17 runs into the two frames Friday and Saturday at Baum Stadium.

A six-run eighth Saturday broke open Alabama’s 11-6 win. The Tide scored eight runs in the fourth and eighth innings of their 11-7 win Friday night and clustered eight runs into the same two innings Saturday.

“ They put together two great innings in two games, ” said Dave Van Horn, Arkansas coach. “ It’s hard to overcome that. ”

Alabama’s prosperity in the two stanzas snapped Arkansas’ string of three consecutive SEC series wins. The loss dropped the Razorbacks 2 1 / 2 games behind Alabama and Ole Miss for first place in the SEC West.

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The Razorbacks (27-20, 9-13 ) will aim to avoid the sweep when the two clubs conclude the series today at 1: 05 p. m. Lefty Chris Springston (5-2, 3. 74 ERA ) is slated as Arkansas’ starting pitcher.

Right hander Robert Phares (2-3, 6. 22 ERA ) will take the ball for Alabama today (28-21, 12-11 ). A victory will give the Tide six straight, their longest win streak of the season. Alabama’s 12-7 record in its last 19 SEC games is the second best in the league, trailing only Georgia. The series win was the Tide’s third straight.

Arkansas starter Justin Wells fanned a career-high 10 batters Saturday but surrendered four of Alabama’s season-high five home runs. It was the first time since 2000 that Alabama hit five home runs in an SEC game.

The Tide tagged Wells for backto-back home runs in the fourth and eighth innings. Left fielder Brandon May authored two of the long balls for the first multi-home run game of his career. May attributed his career day to the wind dynamics inside Baum Stadium.

“ The ball flies here, ” May said. “ The wind was blowing out. If you got a pitch up, you were kind of looking to hit it out. ”

Wells allowed no runs on two hits during his first and third turns through the order. He retired 11 straight during the fourth through seventh innings but couldn’t summon the same effectiveness the second and fourth time through the order.

Facing the top of the lineup in the Alabama eighth, Wells was shelled for six runs on five hits. For the game, he allowed eight earned runs on 12 hits and no walks to incur his first loss of the year.

“ He’s a good pitcher, ” May said of Wells. “ He kept the ball extremely low. It was tough to hit. Later in the game he started to leave some pitches up, and we were aggressive and swung hard. ”

Van Horn said he wanted to get one more inning from Wells and use lefty Stephen Richards for a save opportunity in the ninth.

“ Wells is cruising along pretty good, ” Van Horn said. “ He feels like he’s still spotting it up. We feel pretty good about it. Two swings and we’re down pretty quick.

“ I thought he pitched pretty well. It’s just one of those things. A couple of home runs that were hit late were hit on off-speed pitches. A couple came on changeups down. They just did a good job staying through the ball. They’ve got some pretty good hitters in the middle of that lineup. ”

Ben Tschepikow’s threerun home run, his first of the season, sparked a futile rally in Arkansas’ last at bat, as the Razorbacks ’ eight-run deficit coming into their half of the ninth proved too substantial to recoup.

Tschepikow’s 2 for 5 day extended his hit streak to eight games. Casey Coon (2 for 5 ) and Tim Smalling (3 for 4 ) also had multi-hit games.