FAYETTEVILLE — With temperatures hovering around 44 degrees and the wind barely blowing right to left, balls don't normally fly out of Baum-Walker Stadium.
But the Razorbacks' baseball team showed they could though during Friday's scrimmage.
With the game tied 1-1, and both team's starters out of the game, freshman catcher Dominic Tamez was trying to call time before freshman Evan Gray delivered a pitch. For Tamez, it's a good thing he wasn't successful.
The right-handed Tamez quickly put his right hand back on the bat and pulled a ball halfway up the Hog Pen seating area in left field. Consistent with Arkansas scrimmage rules, Tamez stayed in the box after getting hit by a pitch and delivered the two-run home run with Zack Gregory, the batter before him, on first base as a de factor pinch runner. The home run gave the Red team a 3-1 lead. The Red team won 11-1 in eight innings.
Tamez' hit was the first of two homers in the inning. Curtis Washington pulled a ball into the home bullpen in left field to extend the lead to 4-1.
A nightmarish inning would continue for Gray, the freshman from Swansea, Ill. After giving up a walk to freshman Robert Moore and a single to Casey Martin, Matt Goodheart delivered a 2-RBI double to make the lead 6-1. Redshirt senior transfer Cole Austin followed Goodheart's double with one of his own, scoring Goodheart (who was running for the first time in a preseason scrimmage after overcoming a hamstring injury) and to make the lead 7-1.
Gray's day was done after that, his final line bloated. In 1/3 of an inning he gave up 5 hits, 7 earned runs and walked a batter.
Noland started the game for the Red team, and found himself in some trouble from the first pitch. After redshirt junior transfer Braydon Webb hit the first pitch for a single, Noland got Christian Franklin to ground into a 3-6 double play. Noland wasn't out of the woods yet. He walked Heston Kjerstad, and then the next batter, Casey Opitz, doubled to score Kjerstad with a ball that was hit to straight-away center field.
It will go in the book as a double, but what the stats won't tell you is the center fielder Washington took a bad path to the ball. He took two or three steps in before realizing the ball was over his head. If he would have read the ball off the bat properly he could have caught it.
Jacob Nesbit singled after Opitz's double, but Noland was able to show some poise and get freshman catcher Cason Tollett to hit a weak dribbler back to him on the mound. Noland flipped over to Cullen Smith at first base and went back to the dugout only giving up one run in the first inning.
Noland was impressive from that point. The only batter to reach in the next three innings was Nesbit, who reached on an error by left fielder Bryce Matthews. Noland struck out 5, walked 1 and allowed just the 2 hits in 4 innings.
Noland showed the poise that you would expect from a Friday starter in the Southeastern Conference. His main competitor for the Friday job, Patrick Wicklander, pitched just as well for the Black team.
Wicklander pitched 3 innings giving up 1 earned run, 2 hits, walked 2 and struck out 5.
The only run scored off of him was a leadoff walk to redshirt freshman Zack Gregory.
Gregory showed good speed by stealing on the left-handed Wicklander, with Opitz behind the plate.
After Gregory stole second, Tamez struck out. The next batter, Matthews, singled in Gregory.
Every player who batted in Friday's scrimmage recorded a hit, except freshman infielder Jesse Pierce. But Pierce did find a way on base by walking in the sixth inning against Elijah Trest.
The third and final home run of the day came from Gregory as he put a ball between the right field foul pole and the visitors' bullpen in the bottom of the sixth inning. The two-run home run gave the Red team a 10-1 advantage over the Black team.
The Hogs not only showed deep ball power, but also hit six doubles Friday. Washington made up for his mistake in center field by going 2-for-4 with a home run, a double and 2 RBI.
The bullpen performed decent. Two newcomer relievers caught my eye.
The first was freshman left hander Zack Morris of Cabot. Morris entered the game for the Black team in place of Noland. Morris was tasked with facing Kjerstad, Opitz and Nesbit to start his outing. He handled it like a pro, striking out all three looking.
He came back out for the sixth inning, and looked less impressive. He gave up two walks, a hit and left the game with the bases loaded. With the bases loaded, Trest came in and induced a 4-6-3 double play from Kjerstad. The chemistry between Martin and Moore at shortstop and second seems just fine.
The second pitcher who caught my eye was left-handed sophomore Evan Taylor. Taylor dominates the mound. He's listed at 6-4, 250 pounds and looks every bit of it. He came in for the Black team to relieve Gray in the fourth inning. He allowed Austin to score from second, but didn't allow another runner to reach base in 2 innings.
Other observations:
• The "Baum Stadium" sign atop the video board has been removed. The sign stayed up all last year, despite the stadium being renamed Baum-Walker right before the beginning of the 2019 season.
• Martin recorded his first hit of preseason scrimmages with a single in the big fourth inning. Martin was 0-for-9 with 3 strikeouts last weekend. He was 1-for-4 with a single, walk and a run scored Friday. Martin is working his way back from an offseason hand surgery.
• Sophomore outfielder Trey Harris played right field for the Black team, but did not bat for the fourth consecutive scrimmage. Harris started nine games and played in 15 for the Hogs last year.