FAYETTEVILLE — The ending was disappointing, but the weekend was encouraging for Arkansas' baseball team at Baum-Walker Stadium.
The Razorbacks won two of three games against Mississippi State and were just inches from sweeping the Bulldogs for the third consecutive meeting between the teams.
Mississippi State first baseman Luke Hancock climbed the ladder to catch a hard-hit ball off the bat of Peyton Stovall in the 11th inning of Sunday’s finale. Had the ball cleared Hancock’s glove, Arkansas would have been celebrating a game-winning run by Jalen Battles.
To borrow a commonly used phrase, baseball is a game of inches, maybe more so than any other sport.
With several players who were key contributors on a national championship team last season, the Bulldogs are more talented and more experienced than their 17-12 record suggests.
Mississippi State’s players are battle tested in close games like the one Sunday when they were desperate to avoid a sweep. They made winning plays throughout the final innings.
“If we’d have lost yesterday and won today, it’s a different feeling; you’re excited about being 2-1,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said at the end of the series. “When you have a chance to be 3-0 — which is hard to do against a good team, especially like Mississippi State — it makes it a little more difficult.”
Arkansas’ team should feel good about what it accomplished over the weekend. The Razorbacks’ lineup displayed its potential and Arkansas’ pitching and defense was strong.
Mississippi State scored seven earned runs in regulation against the Razorbacks, four of which came on solo home runs.
Aside from a two-run home run and drawing three consecutive walks in the first inning Saturday, the Bulldogs were unable to string together much of anything at the plate.
In 18 combined innings, Arkansas starting pitchers Connor Noland, Hagen Smith and Jaxon Wiggins allowed 6 runs, 11 hits and 4 walks. They struck out 18.
The Razorbacks’ bullpen also pitched well against Mississippi State — a fact that might get overlooked due to the way Sunday’s game ended, when the Bulldogs scored twice against Kole Ramage in the 12th inning.
Prior to that, Arkansas relievers combined to allow 3 runs (1 earned) in 11 innings against the Bulldogs, who entered the weekend ranked fourth in the SEC with 212 runs scored in 26 games.
Mississippi State scored 11 runs in 30 innings at Arkansas. The Bulldogs scored 31 runs in 27 innings at Georgia and 17 runs in 28 innings against Alabama.
For the weekend, Mississippi State's batting average was .171 — 103 points below its season average.
Few teams in college baseball have had as much consistency as Arkansas from three weekend starters. It has been three weeks since any of the Razorbacks’ starters had what could be classified as a poor start.
Each weekend in SEC play, Arkansas has gotten more combined innings out of its starters than the opponent. Against Mississippi State, the Razorbacks’ starters recorded 54 outs. The Bulldogs’ starters recorded 32.
Arkansas had 30 more outs from its starters than Kentucky did two weeks ago, and 10 more outs than Missouri starters last week.
In nine SEC starts, Noland, Smith and Wiggins have matched or exceeded the number of outs from their starting counterparts each game.
“I think our starting rotation has done a great job,” Van Horn said. “They go out and they give us pretty much five innings every time out, and usually a little bit more lately. They give us a chance to get into the game and see what it’s all about.”
Arkansas has also found a bonafide stud in freshman closer Brady Tygart, who pitched another 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief Sunday to bring his total to 9 1/3 scoreless innings in 5 SEC appearances. He recorded a season-high seven strikeouts against the Bulldogs, including against the first six batters he faced.
Pitching against one of the two prominent teams from his home state, Tygart was ready for the moment. His off-speed pitches were electric and his fastball was in the mid-90s for his first three innings.
He appeared to run out of gas in the 11th inning toward the end of his 59-pitch outing. His previous high for pitches thrown was 37.
Ramage inherited base runners who Tygart hit by a pitch and walked in the 11th, but Ramage struck out Brad Cumbest in three pitches to get out of the jam.
Ramage created the same trouble for himself in the 12th with a hit batter and a walk. Arkansas coaches opted to let him work through it, likely due to his low pitch count, as well as how he pitched in the 11th inning Sunday and the ninth inning Friday, when he retired all three batters he faced.
Zebulon Vermillion also threw a perfect inning Friday and faced the minimum during his scoreless inning Sunday. On Saturday, Gabe Starks gave the Razorbacks two good innings and Elijah Trest retired three straight batters to bounce back from a rough outing at Mizzou.
Those were good signs as the Razorbacks search for relievers who can strengthen the bullpen in SEC play.
The best sign for Arkansas was its hitting in the first two games when the Razorbacks combined to score 20 runs. Mississippi State’s poor bullpen has hurt its pitching numbers this season, but Arkansas did much of its damage against starters.
Preston Johnson, whose pitching stats closely resembled Noland’s entering the series, allowed seven runs in four innings Friday. The Razorbacks were 7 for 17 against Johnson, who had a .198 batting average against.
Arkansas got to Parker Stinnett even quicker Saturday. The Razorbacks drew five free bases against him before he was pulled with two outs in the second inning.
For almost the entire weekend, Arkansas showed patience at the plate as it drew walks and drove up pitch counts.
The Razorbacks walked 26 times in 28 innings. Some of that was due to command issues by the Bulldogs, but the high walk total could also be credited to a disciplined approach by Arkansas' hitters.
“I just think we’re being more patient,” third baseman Cayden Wallace said Saturday.
Walks were a key to Arkansas’ big offensive numbers a year ago when the Razorbacks were second nationally in walks taken. Prior to the Mississippi State series, Arkansas had not been nearly as proficient in drawing walks and ranked ninth out of 14 SEC teams in that category.
Clutch hits evaded the Razorbacks on Sunday when they were 0 for 13 with runners on base. There were many RBI knocks in the first two games, including several for extra bases. Arkansas hit 8 home runs, 1 triple and 3 doubles in the series to raise its slugging percentage by 9 points to .460.
“I felt like when they saw a pitch they were going to swing at, they swung with some intent,” Van Horn said after the second game. “You’ve got to love that. We’re not always going to hit the ball solid, you’re not going to get a hit every time, but man, you can have some intent when you get a pitch to hit and I thought we did that.”
Two of the extra-base hits belonged to Brady Slavens, who looks to be a tough out again after sitting on the bench for three games. Slavens hit a two-run home run and a two-out RBI double in his first game back Saturday, and had a leadoff single in the ninth inning Sunday.
Slavens provided the weekend’s best quote when discussing how cold, windy weather affected Arkansas’ offense throughout the first several weeks. The Razorbacks enjoyed their best weather weekend against Mississippi State, with mild temperatures each day.
“Honestly, warm weather, that definitely helps,” Slavens said. “We have not played in very good weather this year, whether that's wind blowing in or it's freezing outside. I think we like playing with short sleeves on or no sleeves at all."
The weather is warming up and it appears the Razorbacks are, too.
Sleeves won’t be required for the next SEC series at Florida. They should be optional everywhere before long.