HOOVER, Ala. — The Arkansas Razorbacks baseball team, who powered to their first SEC Tournament title with a 4-0 run at the Hoover Met last season, exited the event Friday looking for answers to their late-season swoon.
The University of Arkansas managed solo home runs from Cayden Wallace and Michael Turner in the sixth, and a three-run burst in the ninth powered by Braydon Webb’s two-run homer, but it was too little, too late in a 7-5 loss to Florida in an elimination game.
The Razorbacks (38-18) had their first 0-2 SEC Tournament appearance since falling to Mississippi State and Ole Miss in 2012.
“I don’t know. We got off to a really slow start offensively,” said Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn, who was back in the dugout after missing the Razorbacks’ tournament opener due to a suspected case of food poisoning. “We just couldn’t catch them.”
The Razorbacks are in the midst of their first four-game losing streak since the 2020 team dropped five in a row prior to the covid-19 shutdown. Arkansas will take a four-game skid into the NCAA Tournament, its longest since Van Horn’s first team in 2003 lost three in a row prior to traveling to the NCAA Austin (Texas) Regional.
Florida (37-21) won its third game in a row against the Razorbacks and advanced to face the loser of Friday night’s Alabama-Texas A&M game.
Florida freshman Jan Caglianone homered and drove in three runs, and Jud Fabian and Colby Halter also homered for the Gators.
Turner, the Razorbacks’ lone player in the postgame interview room, said he couldn’t put a finger on the team’s recent struggles.
“Not really, man,” he said. “We’re just trying to keep the circle tight and trying to cut out a lot of the outside noise.
“It’s not always that easy to play here. There’s a lot of people that are fans, good fans, some aren’t so great fans. If you read Twitter after the game, it can get in your mind a little bit. So we’re just trying to keep the circle tight and keep moving forward.”
The Razorbacks have lost six of their past eight games since taking a series at No. 18 Auburn on May 6-8.
Van Horn said the team’s problems have cropped in different areas.
“One day it’s one thing, the next it’s another,” he said. “One day we don’t score, one day we don’t pitch real good or maybe we don’t field. Sometimes it’s just the way the game works. Other times you just have to give the other team credit.”
Arkansas starter Connor Noland (5-5) ran into trouble Friday in the Gators’ two-run second inning and wound up making his fourth consecutive start of 5 innings or less after pitching 5 or more in his first 11 starts.
Noland lasted 4 2/3 innings, giving up 5 runs on 6 hits and 1 walk while striking out 5. The Gators appeared to be sitting on his breaking pitch and not missing the ones that didn’t have sharp breaks.
“No doubt he’s got a really good slider, but kind of our game plan was just see the ball up a little bit and try to take advantage of mistakes,” said Florida nine-hole hitter Colby Halter, who hit one of two solo homers off Noland in the fifth. “You definitely learn from seeing a guy one time earlier in the season.”
Turner said he thought Noland’s “stuff” had remained the same from the earlier part of the season to the current run of shorter starts.
“I think the scouting report is getting out a little bit,” Turner said. “He goes to that curveball a lot, and if he can’t locate the fastball, it’s almost like we’re more confident in throwing the curveball for a strike.
“Once they start sitting on it like that … I think we’re going to talk this week. He’s got to be able to get that fastball over for a strike. We’ll make the adjustment. He’ll be back.”
Noland’s counterpart Nick Pogue (4-3), the Gators’ No. 3 starter, held Arkansas scoreless through five innings before starting his third trip through the order.
The Razorbacks got their leadoff man on in the second and fourth innings — on singles by Chris Lanzill and Turner — and did not advance either runner.
Wallace and Turner hit back-to-back home runs off the right-hander in the top of the sixth to pull Arkansas within 5-2.
Pogue exited having given up 2 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks with 8 strikeouts.
“You’ve got to give credit to Pogue,” Van Horn said. “He just threw a lot of strikes, got ahead of us. We couldn’t get a big hit off of him early, and then we finally broke through there in the sixth inning.”
Florida Coach Kevin O’Sullivan said Pogue’s start was just what the Gators needed.
“Nick Pogue was really good, gave us another quality start,” he said. “Credit Arkansas. They battled right there until the end and were one hit away from getting the tying run to the plate.”
The Razorbacks fell behind by three or more runs in the first five innings for the eighth consecutive game.
Caglianone’s single up the middle brought home Ty Evans and Fabian, who had led off the second inning with a single and double, respectively.
Caglianone and Halter both hit home runs to right field in the fifth. Then Wyatt Langford walked with two outs to end Noland’s outing. Langford scored on BT Riopelle’s double off Evan Taylor to make it 5-0.
After Arkansas pulled within 5-2, Hogs closer Brady Tygart was touched up for tworuns in the bottom of the sixth. Fabian connected for his 21st home run, then Tygart hit both Caglianone and Kendrick Calilao with pitches before giving way to Zebulon Vermillion. Halter hit an RBI single off the big right-hander to complete Florida’s scoring.
Arkansas mounted a late rally in the ninth, started by Jalen Battles’ leadoff walk. Last year’s SEC Tournament MVP took second on defensive indifference, moved up on Peyton Stovall’s groundout and scored on a wild pitch. After Zack Gregory drew his second walk of the game, Webb connected for his team-high 14th home run off Ryan Slater, who was credited with his fifth save for a three-inning stint.