FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ pitchers found things tight around the strike zone against Ole Miss.
Multiple Razorbacks had an uncharacteristically high number of walks during the series. Starter Connor Noland issued a career-high 4 walks during 8 innings Friday; reliever Evan Taylor doubled his season walk total with 4 in 1-plus inning Saturday; and closer Brady Tygart nearly doubled his season total with 6 walks over 5 innings in the final 2 games of the series.
Catcher Michael Turner said it was “for sure” one of the tightest zones the Razorbacks had seen this season. Arkansas walked nine Sunday and 21 for the three-game series.
“Especially today, a lot of those balls…Brady threw had been strikes all year,” Turner said. “It makes it a little bit harder to call a game because I’m nervous and I don’t want to get too far behind in the count, but he made the adjustment pretty quick. He kept his composure well.”
Tygart walked the bases loaded with a series of borderline pitches that were called balls in the ninth inning Sunday. Tim Elko, the Rebels’ three-hole hitter who leads the SEC with 17 home runs, flied out to center field to strand the bases loaded and Arkansas won the series finale 4-3 to clinch the series victory.
After Tygart walked Jacob Gonzalez on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases with two outs, Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn and pitching coach Matt Hobbs voiced their displeasure with home plate umpire Brian deBrauwere from the dugout.
Hobbs then went to the mound to meet with Tygart and the infielders.
“I think when Coach Hobbs went out to the mound there in the ninth, he came back and told me a couple of the guys were kind of laughing, like they thought it was almost laughable the strike zone that was going on there,” Van Horn said. “And they said, ‘Hey, don’t worry, we got it. We’ll be fine.’ That’s the kind of attitude we want.”
Speaking specifically of Tygart’s outing Sunday, Van Horn glanced at a stat sheet that had been placed on a table in front of him.
“It says he walked four there,” Van Horn said. “I don’t know if I’m buying that.”
The strike zone seemed to tighten in the late innings of the final two games. Taylor and Tygart, who had walked 11 batters in a combined 44 innings prior to Saturday, combined to walk 10 in 6 innings Saturday and Sunday.
“We were getting a bunch of balls that could have gone either way and just didn’t get any of the calls,” Tygart said. “But I mean, that happens sometimes. It didn’t make me any less confident in my stuff, so I kept going right after them.”
‘Big, big hits’
Perhaps the most notable difference in Arkansas this weekend was the ability to deliver timely hits.
Kendall Diggs’ game-winning three-run home run on Saturday was the most notable example, but the Razorbacks had a pair of two-out RBI hits Sunday — two-run home runs by Chris Lanzilli in the third inning and Turner in the fifth.
“We got three big, big hits in the last 24 hours,” Van Horn said, “so, hey, that’s a start.”
The home runs made up for the Razorbacks’ struggles to advance base runners. Arkansas was 7 for 34 with runners on base and 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position.
The Razorbacks were 11 for 42 and 7 for 28, respectively, in those categories last week at Texas A&M, but missed in ideal run-scoring opportunities late in Games 1 and 3. The Razorbacks failed to score with runners on third base and less than one out, and lost both games by one run.
Defense superb
Arkansas turned three double plays in each game against Ole Miss to bring its season total to 41.
“Nine is like, that’s a lot,” Van Horn said of the series total. “Credit to the pitchers for getting those ground balls and our guys finishing that up out there because a lot of things can go wrong on a double play. You’ve got to handle the ball about three times. They’ve done a nice job.”
Second baseman Robert Moore and shortstop Jalen Battles teamed for most of the weekend’s double plays. Moore was involved in eight double plays and Battles was involved in six.
Moore made the weekend’s defensive highlight in the fifth inning Sunday. After the leadoff runner reached, Moore fielded a ball to his left near the grass in the hole between first and second base, turned toward Battles who was covering second, and fired a perfect ball against his body.
Battles transferred the ball and threw a dart to first baseman Brady Slavens, who caught the ball just ahead of Jacob Gonzalez arriving at the base.
“My comment immediately was, ‘That’s the best one ever,’” Van Horn said. “I just keep seeing more and more. Those guys are nails in the middle. There are some good ones — Ole Miss has got a great middle infield — but our guys just keep making those plays.”
Sunday's game also included a strong defensive play by left fielder Jace Bohrofen, who ran down a ball in foul ground and caught it while reaching over the railing.
Morris strong again
It has been almost one month since Zack Morris allowed a run.
The left hander from Cabot pitched three scoreless innings Sunday to lower his ERA to 1.00 in 18 innings. That is the lowest among Arkansas pitchers who have thrown at least 10 innings.
It was the fifth consecutive scoreless outing for Morris, whose last run allowed came during an April 5 game against Central Arkansas. Since then, Morris has pitched 11 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. He has also lowered his opponents' batting average to .172.
“I have the same confidence in myself every time I go out there,” Morris said. “Work ethic didn’t change.”
Series update
Beginning with a 2019 NCAA super regional at Baum-Walker Stadium, Arkansas has won three consecutive series over Ole Miss. The Razorbacks have won two games in each series, including the finale to clinch.
It is the first time since 2001-03 — Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco’s first three seasons — that Arkansas has won three straight series over the Rebels. The Razorbacks were coached by Norm DeBriyn in 2001 and 2002, and by Van Horn in 2003.
Sunday was the 71st game coached between Bianco and Van Horn. Ole Miss has a 40-31 lead in the series in those meetings, but Arkansas has won 7 of 10.
The Razorbacks lead the all-time series 56-50.
Lanzilli moves up list
Arkansas right fielder Chris Lanzilli hit his 48th career home run Sunday, which tied him for fifth among active Division I players.
Lanzilli, who hit 42 home runs at Wake Forest prior to transferring to the Razorbacks, is tied with Florida’s Jud Fabian and Florida State’s Alex Toral.
Hitters with more home runs than Lanzilli are: Tennessee Tech’s Jason Hinchman (61), North Carolina-Wilmington’s Ethan Baucom (61), Auburn’s Sonny DiChiara (53) and Oklahoma State’s Griffin Doersching (51).
Turner time
Ole Miss was caught in its only stolen-base attempt of the weekend.
Turner, the Arkansas catcher, threw out Kemp Alderman trying to steal second base to end the top of the third inning Saturday. Turner has thrown out 10 of 30 base runners this season.
Turner’s 33.3% success rate throwing out runners is above the league average of 26.7%.
By comparison, catcher Casey Opitz threw out 11 of 32 last season for a 34.4% success rate.
Arkansas has thrown out base runners in 34% of stolen-base attempts this season, which includes games when Turner played other positions or did not play. The only SEC teams with a better rate are Georgia (39.4%), Ole Miss (36.8%) and Auburn (35.3%).
All Hart
ESPN play-by-play announcer Tom Hart has been on the call for some of Arkansas’ most dramatic moments of the academic year.
Hart called the Razorbacks’ 6-3 victory over Ole Miss on Saturday when Kendall Diggs hit a three-run home run in the ninth inning. He and color analyst Kyle Peterson also called Sunday’s game.
Hart was also on the call for Arkansas’ 16-13 football victory at LSU last November when Cam Little kicked a game-winning field goal in overtime. In February, Hart was courtside when the Razorbacks’ fans stormed the floor following an 80-76 victory over then-No. 1 Auburn in overtime at Bud Walton Arena.
Crowds increase
The announced attendance was 34,796 for Arkansas’ three games against Ole Miss — a Baum-Walker Stadium record for tickets sold to a three-game series in the regular season.
All three games rank in the top 11 in stadium history in tickets distributed. The previous three-game regular-season high was 33,828 for a series against Tennessee in 2019.
Prior to Sunday’s game, Van Horn said the previous two games had been “by far” the best atmospheres at the ballpark this season.
“It’s been pretty quiet here this year compared to maybe normal,” Van Horn said on the Razorbacks’ pregame radio show. “I think it has to do with we’ve had bad weather. You can throw a lot of things in there; maybe we haven’t given them enough to cheer about. The fans stepped up for us this weekend.”
Arkansas improved to 26-4 this season at home.
Other notes
• Ole Miss stranded 26 base runners during the series. The Rebels were 8 for 52 with runners on base and 5 for 30 with runners in scoring position.
• All 12 of Arkansas’ runs in the series were scored on six home runs.
• The Razorbacks have won 13 consecutive home series against SEC teams. The last visiting SEC team to win a series in Fayetteville was Ole Miss during the 2019 regular season.
• Ole Miss left hander John Gaddis pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief Sunday in his first outing since April 16. Gaddis, who began the season as a starter, was coming off a surgery to his appendix, according to the Ole Miss radio broadcast.
Up next
Arkansas is scheduled to host Missouri State on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
The Bears (21-19, 5-7 Missouri Valley Conference) will be making their first trip to Fayetteville since 2018.
Missouri State was scheduled to play at Arkansas in 2020 and 2021, but those games were not played due to cancelations related to covid-19.