FAYETTEVILLE — A ball lost in the lights and a moment’s indecision on a routine ground ball cost the University of Central Arkansas in a wild seventh inning as the No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks broke open a tight game Tuesday night.
The University of Arkansas capitalized on those defensive lapses to score three runs en route to a 6-3 win over the Bears before a crowd of 10,052 at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Arkansas (30-7) out-hit the Bears 13-7, improved to 9-1 in mid-week games and tied the third-fastest season 30 wins under Coach Dave Van Horn, who is in his 21st season. UCA (16-20) ended the Hogs’ streak of consecutive games with a home run at 32.
UCA catcher Noah Argenta tied the game 3-3 with a two-run home run off Parker Coil just over the left field fence in the top of the seventh.
The Razorbacks had an answer in the bottom half of the inning.
Kendall Diggs led off the inning with a seemingly routine high fly to center field that Drew Sturgeon lost in the night sky. Sturgeon ran back and raised his arms in the air as the ball hit several yards in front of him for a Diggs double.
Right-hander and Farmington High School product Cade Fenton (1-2) still had a chance to escape the inning without allowing a run when pinch hitter Brady Slavens hit a two-out ground ball into the shift to shortstop Reid Bowman to the right of second base. However, Bowman took a couple of steps toward Caleb Cali, who was running toward second base, before he decided to throw to first. His throw short-hopped first baseman Jack McLaughlin and a hustling Slavens was called safe on a bang-bang play.
“We just missed an opportunity to finish the inning,” UCA Coach Nick Harlan said. “It just kind of got away from us there a little bit. In games like this you have a small margin for error, any time you play a quality opponent, which of course they are.”
Diggs never stopped running around third and slid home safely ahead of McLaughlin’s throw, which got away from Argenta, allowing both runners to advance. Before the inning was over, Cali scored on Hudson Polk’s bases-loaded walk and Slavens raced in on a wild pitch that ricocheted past reliever Mason Griffin.
“We hit a ball up into the sky and they can’t see it and you saw what happened after that,” Van Horn said. “Next thing you know we got our two runs back plus one more.”
Christian Foutch (1-0) worked out of an eighth-inning jam to pick up his first win and Austin Ledbetter notched his first save, sparked by shortstop Harold Coll’s running backhand catch in left field on a flare by Kade Seldomridge to end the game.
Tavian Josenberger was the hitting and defensive star for Arkansas, going 2 for 5 with 2 RBI.
Josenberger slapped a two-run single in the Razorbacks’ three-run second inning and turned in a defensive gem later to keep the Bears off the board.
The Bears’ aggressive base running paid off with an early run, but it cost them in the fifth as they tried to trim Arkansas’ 3-1 lead. Bowman singled and stole second base, then tried to score on Sturgeon’s single to center field. Josenberger fielded the ball before Bowman rounded third, crow hopped and fired a one-hopper to the right of Polk, the catcher.
Bowman’s slide beat Polk’s tag, but he was called out by home plate umpire Clint Wheeler and the replay review appeared to show Bowman’s legs were wide of the plate before Polk applied the tag near his midsection.
UCA jumped on top in the second inning without the aid of a hit. Cody Adcock hit Mason King and Evan Hafley in the arm on back-to-back pitches with one out. With Noah Argenta at the plate, King bolted for third and made it without a throw as Polk tried to throw behind Hafley at first. His throw skittered away from Ben McLaughlin far enough to allow King to sprint home with an unearned run.
Arkansas snatched the momentum with a three-run bottom of the second fueled by five singles. Harold Coll’s one-out single to left brought home Cali. After Hudson Polk’s infield single to the hole at short loaded the bases and Josenberger scored McLaughlin and Coll with another single to left field to make it 3-1.
The Razorbacks had runners on base in each of the next four innings, but could not push anything across against Fenton.
McLaughlin’s one-out single in the third went for naught, as did Peyton Stovall’s single off the first-base bag in the fourth and Josenberger’s two-out single in the sixth.
Diggs led off the fifth with a ringing single to center and he advanced to second on Sturgeon’s fielding error. That improved Diggs’ batting average to .548 (17 of 31) when leading off an inning. Fenton rallied to retire Cali on a pop out and induce ground ball outs from McLaughlin and Jayson Jones.