The eighth inning has been fruitful for Arkansas in 2022.
The Razorbacks have scored 34 runs in the inning, which are easily the most of any single inning this season. Arkansas’ next-best inning, the sixth, has contributed 21 runs to the season total.
On Friday, the Razorbacks struck again in the eighth to hand Missouri a heavy blow in a tight game at Taylor Field. Braydon Webb’s two-run opposite-field home run to right-center field was the game winner in a 7-5 decision.
It was the fourth time this season Arkansas had a go-ahead hit in the eighth inning. Jalen Battles hit a three-run home run during a 6-4 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette on Feb. 27; Michael Turner hit an RBI single to cap a four-run eighth during a 5-4 win over Illinois-Chicago on March 10; and Cayden Wallace hit a grand slam in the eighth of a March 13 game against UIC that gave the Razorbacks an 8-6 lead. After UIC tied the game in the top of the ninth, Chris Lanzilli hit a game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth to give Arkansas a 10-8 victory.
“I mean, we talk about it all the time, you’ve got to score in the eighth,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “Add to a lead, if you’re the home team, maybe finish them off. I don’t know, the eighth inning has been good to us. I think it’s just been something that has kind of happened, but it’s always a big inning to score because you’re getting close to either winning the game or trying to come back or add to a lead.”
The eighth-inning heroics have given this season’s Razorbacks an identity similar to last year’s team that won 12 games with go-ahead scores in the eighth inning or later.
“We’re just trying to finish games,” Webb said. “It’s a nine-inning game and we’re just trying to stay locked in. We know that one inning can turn it in our favor.”
Mistakes hurt Mizzou
A pair of Missouri base-running mistakes aided Arkansas' pitchers during what could have potentially been rough innings.
Josh Day was thrown out by Arkansas catcher Michael Turner trying to steal second base for the second out of the second inning, and Nander De Sedas was picked off at first by pitcher Evan Taylor for the second out of the sixth. Both outs came after Missouri had scored on one-out base hits by the players who were thrown out.
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Van Horn called the plays “huge” in the outcome of the game.
“The pickoff was big time because he just gave a real average move the first time,” Van Horn said, referencing a throw to first by Taylor just before he picked off De Sedas. “I think he threw a pitch and…then he picked and it was a good time. We saved a run here and a run there and we won by a couple.”
On his postgame radio show, Missouri coach Steve Bieser addressed the base-running blunders.
“Those are players that are a little amped up and doing some things that, really, the plays weren’t on to do that,” Bieser said. “We got a little too excited and tried to create things that (were not) there. That’s something we talked about — let the game come to you, we can’t be over-aggressive. We had a couple of guys that just got a little over-aggressive in a couple of situations.”
Even with the errors on the bases, Missouri had several run-scoring chances. The Tigers stranded 11 base runners, including two in the fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth innings.
“We just couldn’t get the big extra-base hit in the right situation,” Bieser said. “We’d get some base runners on and we left too many base runners on the bases.”
In four SEC games against Kentucky and Missouri, the Razorbacks’ pitching staff has caused 36 base runners to be stranded.
New baseballs
Van Horn said some of Arkansas’ pitchers had difficulty gripping baseballs during the game.
He said the baseballs looked too white, an indication they had not been “rubbed up very well" after they were taken out of their packaging.
“We actually had our pitchers in the bullpen, before they would come in, while they were getting loose, we’d give them a brand-new ball,” Van Horn said. “We wouldn’t rub it up or anything, so maybe the ball in the game felt a little better, a little less slick.
“People that are familiar with the game, baseballs are slick. You’ve got to rub them up a little bit. They were getting rubbed up, just not what we’re used to.”
Short hops
• Arkansas has a 12-game winning streak for the second consecutive season. The Razorbacks won their first 12 games in 2021. The school record for consecutive victories is 18 to begin the 1996 season.
• The Razorbacks are 4-0 in SEC play for the fourth time since 2017.
• Arkansas pitchers Connor Noland (9), Evan Taylor (2), Zebulon Vermillion (1) and Brady Tygart (5) combined for 17 strikeouts, a season high and one shy of the school record set multiple times, most recently last season against TCU.
• Friday’s game was the Razorbacks’ first true road game of the season.