FAYETTEVILLE — A long return home served the Arkansas Razorbacks well.
The fourth-ranked Razorbacks concluded a 12-1 homestand Sunday with a 3-1 victory over Kentucky. The win was Arkansas’ 11th straight and capped a perfect weekend to begin the SEC baseball season at Baum-Walker Stadium.
It was a statement series for the Razorbacks, who never trailed and held the Wildcats’ capable offense in check. Kentucky entered the series ranked in the top 12 nationally in batting average and runs scored, but the Wildcats were outscored 18-6 and hit .202 as a team in Fayetteville.
Kentucky third baseman Chase Estep, who entered the series ranked second in the SEC and 12th nationally with a .471 batting average, finished the weekend 2 for 13 with 6 strikeouts. His 17-game hit streak came to an end Saturday.
Arkansas got quality starts of at least 6 innings from pitchers Connor Noland, Hagen Smith and Jaxon Wiggins, and the Razorbacks’ bullpen allowed 2 earned runs in 8 2/3 innings.
Arkansas also continued a progression of improvement at the plate. The Razorbacks knocked out Kentucky’s starting pitchers after 12, 5, and 8 outs, respectively.
During the homestand that began March 2 with a game against Nebraska-Omaha, Arkansas raised its batting average by 63 points to .276. The Razorbacks have hit 19 home runs, 1 triple and 27 doubles in March to raise their slugging percentage by 98 points to .458.
Perhaps most importantly, Arkansas became more patient and drew 75 walks after pressing in the season’s first two weeks. The Razorbacks’ .388 on-base percentage is 62 points better than it was at the end of February.
Asked about his team’s improvement over the past few weeks at home, Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn was positive Sunday, but indicated the team still has plenty of areas in which it can improve entering the teeth of its SEC schedule in April when the Razorbacks will play 4 of 5 series against teams currently ranked in the top 25 of the USA Today Baseball Coaches Poll.
“I think what we’ve done is we’ve just played solid baseball,” Van Horn said. “We’re not super hot by any means. What I mean by that is we’re getting our wins, but it’s not like we’re just pitching our rear end off or just killing it offensively. We’re just playing solid baseball right now, trying to get into a little bit of a groove.
“We’ve just haven’t made very many mistakes. We’ve gotten a few big hits. We’ve had a few good days at the plate. It’s not like we’ve hit .500 on this homestand. We’ve had to fight. We’ve put together some really good innings. We’ve faced some pretty good competition here and there. The team is just continuing to kind of learn each other. I feel like we’re still going to be a lot better in a few weeks, but the teams we play are really good. Are we going to win them all? No, but we’ll fight everybody for sure.”
Through 19 games, Arkansas’ strength appears to be on defense, in particular up the middle. The Razorbacks (16-3, 3-0 SEC) knew what they had in second baseman Robert Moore and shortstop Jalen Battles, but catcher Michael Turner has proven to be a solid replacement for three-year starter Casey Opitz, and center fielder Braydon Webb is staying in the lineup with an improving bat.
The defense made several highlight plays during the Kentucky series. Moore and Battles teamed for a double play to erase first-inning base runners in Games 1 and 2, and Webb made a great running catch to rob a potential RBI hit in the first inning of Saturday’s game.
There were multiple other instances when a defender made a hard play look routine.
“I swear I'm saying, 'Wow,' every time we freaking make a play,” said freshman Brady Tygart, who threw two scoreless innings Sunday to earn his second save. “JB is incredible at shortstop. You feel like you can throw anything and if it's hit in his general direction, he's out. That's huge as a pitcher.”
Added Wiggins: “Pitching with a defense like that behind you, you shouldn't have any worries."
Van Horn said he thought the Razorbacks’ defense was the difference in the series. Arkansas played three errorless games. By contrast, Kentucky committed seven errors.
“The difference between winning and losing can be really slim,” Van Horn said. “I just feel it was about the defense. We played good defense all weekend; made some super plays.”
Several of those plays were key in Noland, Smith and Wiggins working around base runners. Wiggins held Kentucky to 1 for 13 with runners on base and 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position Sunday, two days after Noland limited the Wildcats to 1 for 13 and 1 for 7 in those scenarios.
Smith shut down Kentucky after a shaky second inning Saturday.
“I would think our starters’ confidence would be really good after this past weekend,” Van Horn said.
Webb and Moore heated up offensively during the series. Moore had 3-RBI games Friday and Saturday, and manufactured a run Sunday when he walked, stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error and scored on a bunt single. He finished the series 4 for 9 with 2 walks and 3 runs scored.
“We started SEC play today, and players always show up when they need to,” Moore said Friday.
Webb hit his second home run in as many games and third home run of the week Sunday. The 442-foot blast was clocked at 111 mph off the bat, and the 2 RBI were the difference in the 3-1 final score.
Five days after he broke out of a 0-for-23 slump with a grand slam against Grambling State, Webb has a .175 batting average and OPS (on-base plus slugging) of .740.
“I’m just trying to control things that I can control,” Webb said. “Just playing with confidence and just playing for the guys next to me, playing for our amazing fans and just trying to keep a good perspective and treat each day as its own.”
The lineup might receive another boost at Missouri next weekend, when outfielder Jace Bohrofen might return from a shoulder injury. He has not played since he injured his shoulder during pregame warmups on March 10.
Prior to the injury, Bohrofen had hits in 6 of 11 at-bats during a series against Southeastern Louisiana after a lengthy slump to start the season. Bohrofen has a .214 average and an OPS of .647.
At one point during the Kentucky series, the Razorbacks had six everyday players hitting better than .300. That fell to three — catcher Michael Turner (.369), outfielder Chris Lanzilli (.364) and first baseman Peyton Stovall (.313) — after an eight-hit performance Sunday. Lanzilli and Stovall had personal hit streaks of 12 and 11 games, respectively, come to an end in the final game.
“There were some big hits and some runners left out there today,” Van Horn said. “We have some of our guys that maybe are normally our hot-type guys, our better hitters and they didn’t have a great weekend, but other guys picked it up.”
The finale highlighted the story of the Razorbacks’ long homestand, when they became a visibly more well-rounded team.