Arkansas survived another scare at Dickey-Stephens Park on Tuesday.
Robert Moore scored from third base on a wild pitch by Central Arkansas pitcher Andrew Shoultz in the 10th inning to give the Razorbacks a 2-1 victory in front of an announced crowd of 10,333 in North Little Rock.
Moore singled to right field with one out, advanced to second base on a one-out walk by Cayden Wallace and went to third when Michael Turner hit into a fielder’s choice.
Brady Slavens drew a full count with two outs against Schoultz, who bounced the 3-2 pitch to allow Moore to come home for the winning run.
Arkansas (32-9) swept its season series against the Bears (18-21). The Razorbacks defeated UCA 21-9 on April 5 in Fayetteville.
The Bears squandered a chance to take the lead in the top of the 10th inning. Arkansas reliever Mark Adamiak walked Noah Argenta to lead off the inning, which prompted Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn to make a pitching change.
Heston Tole replaced Adamiak and Trey Harris — an outfielder who transferred from Arkansas following the 2020 season — was brought in as a pinch runner for the Bears. Harris advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt and stole third base with one out.
Tole struck out Tanner Leonard to negate UCA’s sacrifice fly chance, and RJ Pearson flied out to strand Harris.
Arkansas missed on several chances to go ahead late in the game. The Razorbacks stranded a runner in scoring position in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, and pinch runner Drake Varnado was caught trying to steal second base after Jace Bohrofen led off the ninth inning with a walk against Schoultz.
Braydon Webb unsuccessfully tried to lay down a bunt twice with no outs in the ninth. Varnado was thrown out on a 1-2 slider to Webb, and Webb and Peyton Stovall struck out to send the game to extra innings.
Webb gave Arkansas a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning. He singled to lead off the inning and scored on Dylan Leach’s two-out RBI single.
Kolby Johnson led off the top of the sixth with a double for UCA. He advanced on a pair of groundouts, including a fielder’s choice RBI for Hunter Hicks.
Otherwise the Bears had little success against Arkansas starter Will McEntire, who was pitching 20 miles from his hometown of Bryant. McEntire allowed 3 hits, walked 1 and struck out 4 in a 6-inning start. He threw 57 of 84 pitches for strikes.
UCA also got a great start from Oliver Laufman, who allowed 1 run, 6 hits and 3 walks, and struck out 1 in 7 innings. Laufman threw 62 strikes in 93 pitches.
Schoultz replaced Laufman after Bohrofen reached on an error in the seventh inning. Webb singled to move Bohrofen into scoring position, but Stovall, Leach and Moore were retired in order to end the threat.
The Razorbacks were 2 for 18 with runners on base and 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position.
Arkansas put two runners on against Laufman in the first inning when Moore and Turner walked. Bohrofen had the Razorbacks’ first hit with a leadoff double in the second, but never advanced.
Laufman settled in from there. He retired nine consecutive hitters before Webb’s single to lead off the fifth.
Meanwhile, McEntire pitched quickly for the Razorbacks. He retired eight straight Bears between the second and fourth innings, and had 10-pitch innings in the third and fourth.
UCA did not record a hit against McEntire until the fifth. The Razorbacks out-hit the Bears 7-3. It was the fifth time in 11 games that Arkansas held an opponent to three or fewer hits.
Zack Morris replaced McEntire in the seventh and retired all three hitters in the inning. But Morris ran into trouble in the eighth when RJ Pearson walked with one out and Connor Emmet was hit by a two-out pitch.
Evan Taylor came out of the bullpen to induce an inning-ending popup by Hicks. Taylor also retired all three hitters he faced in the ninth.
Tole earned the win with his one inning of relief. The sophomore right hander threw 7 of 9 pitches for strikes.
Shoultz pitched 2 2/3 innings for the Bears, but suffered his fourth loss. He allowed 1 hit, walked 3 and struck out 4. He also threw two wild pitches, the most critical of which was on the final pitch of the game.
The Razorbacks improved to 10-1 all-time at Dickey-Stephens Park, where several games have been close. Arkansas has been involved in 1-run games there 6 times, and have also played a pair of 2-run games.
It was the third extra-inning game for the Razorbacks in North Little Rock, but first since a 2012 victory over Louisiana Tech.
Arkansas was playing its first game in North Little Rock since 2019. The Razorbacks played there in 10 consecutive seasons beginning in 2010, but did not play there the last two seasons due to covid-19.
After two days off Arkansas will return to action Friday for the first of a three-game series against Ole Miss at Baum-Walker Stadium.