Fireworks aplenty: Hogs wallop NC State behind 4 homers

Charlie Welch and Robert Moore meet at home plate following a home run on Friday, June 11, 2021, during the Razorbacks’ 21-2 win over North Carolina State at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. Visit nwaonline.com/210612Daily/ for the photo gallery.

FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas blasted its way out of a postseason hitting slump on Friday, pounding out four home runs and 10 extra-base hits to rip North Carolina State 21-2 in the opening game of an NCAA super regional.

Robert Moore homered twice as the Razorbacks piled up a program high for runs in a postseason game, topping their 20-13 win over Eastern Kentucky on May 23, 1985.

Moore’s two-run homer in the second inning gave the top-ranked Razorbacks the lead and Cullen Smith’s third-inning grand slam broke it open at 7-1 against Reid Johnston (8-3).

Arkansas (50-11) had been hitting .222 in the postseason (55 for 248) before racking up 17 hits, 8 walks and a .415 batting average against the Wolfpack. Moore added a three-run homer in the eighth inning as part of his five RBI, and Charlie Welch ripped a two-run homer as Arkansas put up five innings with three or more runs.

The Razorbacks also broke an 0-for-5 postseason skid against Atlantic Coast Conference competition.

“We have great hitting coaches and we hit a lot,” said Moore, who was 4 for 5 with 5 runs scored. “We do a lot of different drills. We do a lot of angle BP, a lot of breaking balls and we just kind of gear our swings to hit doubles, triples, home runs, so the batting averages may not be as high because of that, but our damage was pretty high.

“That’s a credit to our coaching staff, a credit to our players seeing a lot of cookies and destroying them.”

North Carolina State (33-18) must win today’s 2 p.m. game to extend the super regional.

The Wolfpack are set to start freshman right-hander Sam Highfill (7-2, 3.95 ERA), while Arkansas will go with senior left-hander Lael Lockhart (3-3, 4.50).

Moore led six Razorbacks with multi-hit games.

The designated hitter Welch, one of the hero’s of Monday’s regional final win over Nebraska, went 3 for 4 with 4 RBI. Matt Goodheart, Smith, Casey Opitz and Jalen Battles all had two hits each.

Arkansas took over the Division I lead with 106 home runs.

“The ball was jumping tonight at the ballpark, big time,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “Light wind blowing across. It almost played like the wind was blowing out. We were fortunate. We got some balls up and hit them out of the park.”

The Razorbacks had played a series of nail biters in recent weeks, in a series at Tennessee, at the SEC Tournament and in last week’s NCAA regional.

“It was nice to win one and kind of know in the middle of the game that if we just held it together a little bit, we were going to win it, because we’ve had some really tight ones,” Van Horn said. “Pins and needles, basically. … It just wasn’t expected.”

The runaway also allowed ace reliever Kevin Kopps to get an extra day’s rest after throwing 90 pitches on Monday and 185 pitches in three games in the regional.

North Carolina State Coach Elliott Avent said he didn’t have to tell his players much in the postgame.

“I just said forget this game as quickly as you can,” he said. “There’s nothing to think about. Nothing to dwell on. We came down here with two wins to go to Omaha, and we still have two wins to go to Omaha. Let’s play hard and see what happens tomorrow.”

Arkansas notched its 50th win, the fourth time in program history it has reached that milestone.

The Razorbacks also posted their third explosive super regional opener in a row after scalding South Carolina 9-3 in 2018 and Ole Miss 11-2 in 2019.

After Arkansas knocked out Johnston with seven runs in three innings, the Wolfpack went with a succession of six pitchers who had not thrown much this season.

“They got the game over,” Avent said. “It got ugly, but that’s fine. That’s a bullpen that’s going to have to get better. … We saved the guys we needed to save, and we’ll just have to come out a lot better tomorrow.”

After a shaky start, Patrick Wicklander (7-1) settled in and gave the Razorbacks six innings on a career-high 99 pitches.

Wicklander left a runner at third base in the first inning, gave up a leadoff homer to Jose Torres on his first pitch of the second inning, in which he escaped with runners on second and third, then he stranded the bases loaded in the fourth inning.

“That first inning he threw a lot of pitches and you’re thinking, man, he won’t be able to give us three or four innings even if he turns it around because of his pitch count,” Van Horn said. “But he went out and had a couple of good innings. … I really think about the the [fourth] inning is when he flipped the switch.”

Arkansas notched its 21st win when trailing at the end of any inning this season.