The late rally against Zack Hess and Nick Bush (0-1) took unbeaten Arkansas starter Blaine Knight off the hook as the right-hander left trailing 4-2 after six innings. Barrett Loseke (2-1) got the victory with seven outs of scoreless relief, and Jake Reindl picked up his fifth save.
Arkansas’ Eric Cole hit his 11th and 12th home runs, a lead-off shot on a nine-pitch at-bat to open the game and another over the right-field wall to open the critical eighth inning. Hess was lifted after Dominic Fletcher singled behind the Cole home run in the eighth.
Casey Martin greeted Bush with a single before Heston Kjerstad grounded into a double play. Lee saved the day with his single to center field and his base-running prowess.
Knight went on to post a 14-0 record and lead the Razorbacks to their ninth College World Series appearance.
2005
Arkansas All-American Eric Brown was named the SEC Field Athlete of the Week after winning the javelin at the Penn Relays with a throw of 233 feet, 6 inches.
May 5
2019
Danielle Gibson hit her 12th and final home run of the season for the No. 20 Razorbacks softball team in a 5-2 victory over No. 23 Auburn at Bogle Park. Arkansas pulled off a three-game sweep of the Tigers to cap the season.
Gibson led Arkansas with her dozen home runs after making home run history earlier in the year. A sophomore from Murrieta, Calif., Gibson became the second collegian to hit for the home run cycle in a 15-3 five-inning victory over Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville on Feb. 1. Gibson did the feat in the first four innings, starting with a two-run shot in the first. She hit a three-run homer in the second inning, a grand slam in the third and a solo shot in the fourth.
2009
Shawn Forrest was named the SEC Runner of the Week and Whitney Jones of the UA women’s team was named the conference’s freshman of the week. Forrest set a school record in the 10,000 meters (27 minutes, 52.10 seconds) at Stanford’s Cardinal Invitational, and Jones finished second overall and first among college athletes in the long jump (20 feet, 1 3 /4 inches) at the Arkansas Twilight Meet.
2004
Senior golfer Andrew Dahl earned All-SEC first-team honors for the second consecutive season. He became only the third Razorback to earn the honor two consecutive years, joining Bud Still (1994-95) and Craig Lile (2000-01).
Dahl had seven top-20 finishes on the season, carding the lowest stroke average on the team (72.3). He also recorded his third career tournament victory March 16 at the Morris Williams Intercollegiate, where he fired a career-best and competitive course-record 64.
1989
The Razorbacks posted a school-record 67 at-bats in an 11-9 series-opening victory at Texas A&M.
The game lasted 16 innings. The 67 at-bats still stand as an Arkansas record, though the Razorbacks have played longer games.
The Aggies would rally to win the series with 3-2 and 9-0 decisions the next two games.
May 6
2019
Softball standouts Ashley Diaz and Autumn Storms swept the SEC’s weekly honors as Diaz was named the league’s co-player of the week and Storms was pitcher of the week.
Diaz went 6 for 10 in a three-game sweep of Auburn at Bogle Park, including a go-ahead two-run home run in the Razorbacks’ 5-2 victory in the series finale. Diaz’s home run was her ninth of the season and the 30th of the senior’s career, moving her into fourth place on Arkansas’ all-time home runs list.
Storms struck out eight batters in 13 innings and improved to 20-6 with a victory in the series finale. Storms picked up her second conference pitcher of the week award of the season and the team’s third after Mary Haff earned the honor on March 4.
2009
Arkansas’ men’s basketball team, which went 2-14 in SEC play, was hit with the conference’s lowest Academic Progress Report (APR) score of 888, according to statistics released by the NCAA.
The low score included academic eligibility and retention numbers for the previous four years combined. Heavily impacting the low score was that all six seniors on the 2007-08 team failed to graduate. Also during the scoring period, Arkansas star Patrick Beverley was ruled academically ineligible before his junior season and left school to play professionally in the Ukraine, and junior college transfer Montrell McDonald left the team after being suspended by Coach John Pelphrey.
2001
Arkansas finished off a stunning sweep of No. 1 LSU with a 4-3 victory at Baum Stadium in the Hogs’ penultimate series of the year.
Kyle Washburn’s two-run double in the sixth inning provided the winning runs for the Razorbacks, who would finish 27-29 and out of the postseason. LSU would advance to the NCAA Super Regionals before falling 2 games to 1 against in-state rival Tulane.
LSU had not been swept in a conference series since March 22-24, 1996, a span of 55 consecutive series. The Razorbacks would post another sweep of the Tigers three years later, this time at Alex Box Stadium in 2004.
Scott Roehl (4-4) pitched the final 3 2/3 innings to log the victory.
Arkansas won the prior two games in the series 8-1 and 5-4.
May 7
2016
The legend of the “Rally Possum” was born when LSU rallied from a 9-1 deficit to defeat Arkansas 10-9 in 10 innings at Alex Box Stadium.
The possum appeared on the field with Arkansas leading 9-4 in the seventh inning. The Tigers scored one run after the delay in the seventh, then rallied for four unearned runs in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings.
Jake Fraley hit a one-out double in the 10th inning before Kramer Robertson’s single moved him to third, with Fraley scoring on an error on the play.
Tucker Pennell went 4 for 4 and Rick Nomura was 3 for 6 with two runs scored for the Hogs.
A stuffed possum doll was taped to the Tigers’ dugout the next day. LSU fans rallied around the possum mascot the rest of the season, with T-shirts and stuffed possums prominent at Tigers’ games.
2005
Arkansas’ women’s golf team claimed a spot in the NCAA Championships by finishing among the top 10 with a final-round 304 at the NCAA Central Regional in Lubbock, Texas.
Arkansas finished eighth with a 915 and was led in the final round by Amanda McCurdy’s 75. Courtney Mahon and Gena Johnson shot 76s, and Stacy Lewis and Lindsey Hinshaw added 77s.
Auburn won the regional, coming from behind with a final-round 283 for an 896.
May 8
2017
Junior running back Rawleigh Williams III announced the end of his college football career in a written message to fans posted on the UA website.
Williams bounced back from major neck surgery in October 2015 to rush for 1,360 yards in 2016, but he suffered a second neurological event early in the Razorbacks’ Red-White practice on April 29.
“I’m moving on to the next chapter of my life,” Williams wrote. “It still doesn’t seem real yet, but I really don’t have a choice. I’ve dodged the bullet twice. I realize that at the end of the day I want to live a normal life and be around my family.”
May 9
2019
Five Razorbacks hit home runs as No 4 Arkansas bombarded No. 15 LSU 14-4 to open a three-game set at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Casey Martin paced the rout, hitting his 12th home run in the first inning and going 4 for 5 with three runs scored. Dominic Fletcher hit his 10th home run and went 3 for 4 with 3 RBI, while Jack Kenley matched Fletcher with his 10th homer and added a game-high 4 RBI. Trevor Ezell hit his seventh home run and Casey Opitz launched his second to complete the Razorbacks’ quintet of homers.
Isaiah Campbell (9-1) was the beneficiary of the onslaught, which featured 12 runs in the first four innings. Campbell allowed 2 runs on 4 hits and 1 walk and struck out 4 while throwing 95 pitches in 6 innings.
2008
Pinch-hitter Jacob House hit a two-out walk-off grand slam as the Razorbacks stunned South Carolina 12-11 in the opening game of an SEC series at Baum Stadium.
The Gamecocks, who led 9-3 in the fifth inning, held an 11-8 lead entering the bottom of the ninth before Andy Wilkins singled and Brett Eibner drew a walk. After South Carolina pitcher Parker Bangs recorded two outs, leadoff man Chase Leavitt beat out an infield grounder on which second baseman Scott Win-go fielded and threw from his knees. House drove a 1-0 pitch over the right field wall to send the Razorbacks home victorious.
Logan Forsythe hit two home runs and went 4 for 4 for the Razorbacks, and Wilkins went 4 for 5. Leavitt had three hits, while Sean Jones and Forsythe scored three runs each. Evan Cox (3-0) got the win with two innings of scoreless relief.
2007
Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles was picked to receive the NACDA-NIT Athletics Director Award in recognition of his 50 years with the Razorbacks.
Broyles became Arkansas’ football coach in December 1957 and remained in that position for two decades. He took over as athletic director in 1973 and retired in December 2007.
“Receiving the NACDA-NIT Athletics Director Award means a great deal to me, as it is conferred by peers and represents my colleagues in the profession,” Broyles said. “I express my deepest thanks to the selection committee for honoring me with this prestigious award.”
May 10
2008
The 17th-ranked Arkansas women’s tennis team advanced to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 with a 4-3 victory over No. 14 North Carolina.
2006
The new John McDonnell Field opened by hosting the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
“It’s top-drawer,” said McDonnell, the Razorbacks’ coach. “There won’t be anything else like it in the United States.”
The facility, which cost $8 million, was built in four months after the old John McDonnell Field was demolished on the same site. Arkansas could have passed on hosting the SEC meet, which hadn’t been held in Fayetteville since 1994, but McDonnell and Razorbacks Athletic Director Frank Broyles declined that option.
“It would be embarrassing to pass on the conference meet with all the championships we’ve won, and I think Coach Broyles agreed on that,” McDonnell said. “That’s why he said, ‘It has to be done this year.’ Coach Broyles is very good at pushing people and getting them to do things.”
2004
Carie Dever-Boaz, Arkansas’ first softball coach who in 1995 began building the program that debuted on the field in 1997, resigned with a 244-274-1 record in eight seasons after the Lady Razorbacks struggled to an 18-40 mark in 2004.
“I had eight wonderful years here,” Dever-Boaz said. “It was filled full of laughter and many wonderful memories. I am grateful for all the lifetime friends I have made.”
Dever-Boaz, SEC Coach of the Year in 1999 when Arkansas finished 46-29, led the UA to NCAA Tournament bids in 2000 and 2002.