HOUSTON — When the ball left his bat in the top of the ninth inning, Matt Goodheart thought it had a chance to complete one of the more amazing rallies in Arkansas baseball history.
The No. 5 Razorbacks fell behind Texas 8-0 after two innings Saturday at Minute Maid Park, and Goodheart’s blast off Texas closer Andre Duplantier II was just inches from being a game-tying, three-run homer.
Instead, Goodheart's hit was a one-out double off the top of the wall and scored two runs to pull Arkansas within 8-7. Goodheart was stranded at second base as Casey Opitz and Casey Martin struck out in consecutive at-bats to end the game.
“I knew I hit it well, but I didn’t know how far it was going to get,” Goodheart said. “I tried to find it because I didn’t know where it was going, but I looked right into the lights, couldn’t see so I was just trying to read the outfielders. When I saw it was still in play, I tried to get as many bases as I could.”
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn, whose team matched Texas’ 10 hits, thought it was going to get out as well.
“When he hit it, he kind of hit the middle of it, the top of it,” Van Horn said. “He hammered it. He had a little bit of top spin on it. When it left the bat, I thought it was still going to maybe squeak out of here, but the backspin kept it in. He hit it awfully hard. Two foot more and it ties up the game.”
Duplantier's strikeouts preserved the win for the Longhorns (10-1) over the Razorbacks (7-2) in a battle of old Southwest Conference rivals at Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic.
It left Arkansas 0-2 in the event, but with Van Horn feeling like the Razorbacks might come out of the weekend a better team.
“Man, I was so proud of our team,” Van Horn said. “We just kept fighting and fighting. This has been a good learning experience for us and we are going to be fine.”
Arkansas had the chance to get back into the ballgame in large part because of relief pitcher Caleb Bolden’s four scoreless innings after he took the mound in the third. Bolden struck out five and allowed two hits.
“Bolden gave us a chance,” Van Horn said. “He pitched great, throwing the ball 88 or 89 mph and getting people out. He spotted it up and moved it around.”
Bolden continues to stretch out his innings after coming back from Tommy John surgery. He has thrown 10 scoreless innings this year.
“When you come out of the bullpen with that kind of deficit, you just have to do what you can do,” Bolden said. “I had all four pitches working for me. I wasn’t scared to attack the strike zone or anything like that. I knew they would put balls in play and my defense would help out and what not.
“I just came out of the bullpen and said ‘I have to give my team a chance’ and that is what I did.”
Arkansas rallied with a run in the fifth, and two apiece in the sixth, seventh and ninth innings.
Jacob Burton also pitched two scoreless frames for Arkansas, striking out the side in the seventh and working around a pair of two-out walks in the eighth.
Texas jumped out front with a pair of runs in the first inning against Arkansas starter Patrick Wicklander. The Longhorns put four more on against Wicklander without recording an out in the second inning. Wicklander took his first loss of the season by allowing 6 runs (4 earned) on 5 hits and a walk.
Texas scored six runs in the second against Wicklander and reliever Marshall Denton to go ahead 8-0. The Razorbacks committed four errors over the first two innings, and three of Texas' runs were unearned.
“It was just a really crazy start to the game,” Van Horn said. “Give Texas credit, they came out swinging the bats, but Wicklander didn’t have a secondary pitch and he couldn’t locate his fastball. He just made a lot of mistakes and they hit a lot of balls hard, ground balls that went through, line drives and we booted a couple of balls, too.”