FAYETTEVILLE — It took 10 innings, but No. 1 Arkansas beat Texas A&M 2-1 on a walk-off error Saturday night at Baum-Walker Stadium.
With runners on first and second with nobody out in the bottom of the 10th inning, Cayden Wallace grounded to the Texas A&M shortstop, who flipped to second for the first out, but the turn by second baseman Ty Coleman was spiked into the ground.
The ball got by the first baseman and allowed Robert Moore to score without a throw, and gave Arkansas its second win of the day over the Aggies.
"We knew the second game was going to be tight,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “You score that many runs against a good team that can pitch, you just know it's going to be 3-2, 2-1, and that's what we got.”
The Razorbacks beat Texas A&M 13-0 in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader.
Matt Goodheart provided the offense for the Razorbacks in the first inning with a solo home run to right-center field. Combined with the first game of the doubleheader, Goodheart went 4-for-8 on the day with 2 home runs, 2 RBI and 4 runs scored.
"Matt, when he gets hot he can hit with anybody in the league,” Van Horn said.
Goodheart went 2-for-4 with a home run, and raised his average to .340, which is second on the team behind Charlie Welch.
While he provided the offense for Arkansas (30-5, 11-3 SEC), starter Peyton Pallette kept the Aggies off the board. Pallette allowed just 3 hits over 6 innings, and he struck out 7 batters without walking any Aggies.
His six-inning outing topped his previous long of 5 innings against Southeast Missouri State.
"Pallette's start was really good,” Van Horn said. "It was an efficient six innings.”
Despite giving up the home run in the first, Texas A&M (20-17, 3-11 SEC) stayed in the game thanks to starter Bryce Miller. He threw 6 innings, giving up 2 hits, 1 earned run, 5 walks, and striking out 10 Arkansas batters.
Razorbacks reliever Kevin Kopps came in to start the seventh inning and the first batter he faced, Brett Minnich, took a hanging 0-2 breaking ball and homered to tie the game 1-1.
Kopps got out of the seventh without allowing another run, but then he found himself in more trouble in the eighth with Aggies on first and second with one out. He forced a ground ball to short for Jalen Battles, who kickstarted a double play.
Van Horn said he didn’t think Kopps had his best stuff Saturday night, but he was proud of him for competing.
“He had just enough,” Van Horn said. "It was good stuff for maybe some guys, but for Kevin it was, like I said, it was average stuff.”
Kopps finished the game with five strikeouts over four innings of work, his longest outing since the second game of the Mississippi State series. Kopps' 73 pitches were the most he has thrown this season.
Moore and Goodheart led off the 10th inning with back-to-back singles against Texas A&M reliever Chandler Jozwiak, then Wallace followed with his fielder’s choice groundout and error that ended the game.
The Razorbacks and Aggies are scheduled to wrap up the series Sunday at 2 p.m. at Baum-Walker Stadium. Left hander Lael Lockhart is expected to start for Arkansas while Texas A&M is expected to throw right hander Nathan Dettmer.