FAYETTEVILLE — A lot of walks and a couple of long balls helped carry the University of Arkansas baseball team to a 7-5 victory over Texas A&M on Thursday night at Baum-Walker Stadium.
The No. 6 Razorbacks (31-11, 12-7 SEC) scored six of their runs on home runs. Peyton Stovall hit a grand slam in the second inning and Jace Bohrofen hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning.
All four runners on base for the home runs were among the season-high 14 walks issued by Texas A&M pitchers.
Sophomore left-hander Hagen Smith pitched the final four innings for Arkansas and allowed four base runners, but no runs.
Smith retired Texas A&M (25-17, 9-10) in order in the ninth inning and got Trevor Werner on a pop-out to third baseman Caleb Cali to end the game.
“Hagen has a lot of experience at the end of games,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “He’s come in some tough situations and finished games. He’s been a starter, a reliever.
“I mean, he knows how to wiggle out of it. He made some really good pitches. … There were a couple innings there that it was a little stressful, and he has a knack for finishing things up.”
Will Johnston came in to pitch for the Aggies in the eighth inning after Cali drew a lead-off walk from Brandyn Garcia. Bohrofen — the first batter Johnston faced — hit a 1-2 pitch over the right field fence to put the Razorbacks ahead 7-5.
“I was just going to sit on a slider,” said Bohrofen, who hit his 11th home run. “Luckily he hung one over the plate and I put a good swing on it.”
Razorbacks left fielder Hunter Grimes — making his fourth start of the season and first in an SEC game — threw out Ryan Targac at home to complete a double play and end the top of the eighth inning to keep the score tied 5-5.
Grimes caught a line drive by Hunter Haas and unleashed a strong throw that catcher Parker Rowland fielded on one bounce and tagged out Targac, who slid head first.
“I was running to back up home and just saw the ball coming in and I saw Parker’s tag,” Smith said. “And I was like ‘Holy cow!’ ”
The call was upheld after a replay.
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“I felt like [Grimes] got a really good read on the ball,” Van Horn said. “He had a lot of momentum moving toward the plate. He got around the ball a little bit.
“He used his former infield skills there to get rid of that ball really fast. And he short-armed darted it and made a perfect throw. Played the angle a little bit and the ball hit the grass and shot to the catcher. Great play. Great tag.
“Rowland also plays first base and he showed a little bit of that right there. He just popped that tag down.”
Before Grimes’ double-play throw, Texas A&M got runners on second and third with one out after Smith walked Targac and Jordan Thompson, and they advanced on a sacrifice bunt by pinch hitter Travis Chestnut.
The Aggies got the go-ahead run on third base with no outs in the seventh inning when Werner hit a lead-off double and stole third base, but Smith left him stranded.
Clean-up hitter Brett Minnich struck out looking, Austin Bost flied out to shallow right field — and Werner didn’t test Kendall Diggs’ throwing arm — and Smith struck out Jace LaViolette swinging.
“I thought both teams expended a lot to try and win the game,” Texas A&M Coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “They threw [Dylan] Carter and Smith, and we threw Garcia and Johnston, two of our back-end relievers.
“We had a runner at third and nobody out and Smith pitched his way out of it. We had second and third with one out and the left fielder made a great throw. Awesome play.
“But that’s life in this league. It’s just razor thin.”
Arkansas left two runners on base in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
“Well, we weren’t having wine and cheese, I can tell you that,” Van Horn said of the mood in the dugout after the Razorbacks lost an early 5-0 lead and kept leaving runners on base late in the game. “It wasn’t very fun.
“It was guys talking to each other about staying positive. The coaches were saying, ‘You’ve got to stay positive.’
“I just kept mentioning, ‘Now we have a four-inning game, we need to win it. We have a three-inning game, out-score them the last three.’ I didn’t say much after that.
“It was just some really good pitching by both sides there for the most part. We had a couple of big swings and the last one ended up winning the game for us.”
The Razorbacks have been hit hard by injuries, and Carter now might be out, Van Horn said.
Carter replaced Arkansas starter Hunter Hollan in the fifth inning, then gave way to Smith for the sixth.
“Carter, he’s been sore, and he’s sore again, so that’s probably not a good sign,” Van Horn said. “We were going to go to Hagen anyway, because we didn’t like what we were seeing [from Carter] out there. It wasn’t the normal stuff.”
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Texas A&M tied it 5-5 with a run in the fifth inning when Werner and Minnich got singles off Carter.
Werner advanced to third base on Minnich’s single and scored on a sacrifice fly to center field by Bost.
Hollan allowed 4 runs, 6 hits and 2 walks with 1 strikeout on 83 pitches.
Texas A&M scored four runs in the fourth inning to cut Arkansas’ lead to 5-4. LaViolette and Targac hit one-out singles and Thompson followed with a three-run home run on an 0-2 pitch.
After Max Kaufer popped out, Haas hit a home run on a 1-2 pitch.
“[Hollan’s] velocity was down,” Van Horn said. “He wasn’t super sharp. They were on him pretty good.
“I really don’t know what to say, just that he’s been better. I’ll just leave it at that. He’s not having any issues with his arm or anything, though.”
Arkansas scored five runs in the second inning, highlighted by Stovall’s grand slam, to take a 5-0 lead.
Texas A&M starter Troy Wansing walked Grimes, Brady Slavens and Rowland to load the bases with no outs.
Bolton, the 9-hole hitter, got an infield single to score Grimes and keep the bases loaded.
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Wansing struck out Diggs, then Stovall hit his fifth home run of the season and first career grand slam on a 3-2 pitch.
Arkansas, which improved to 26-3 at home this season, broke a four-game losing streak after being swept at Georgia last weekend and losing at Missouri State 8-4 on Tuesday night.
“It was a big win for us,” Van Horn said. “I mean, you look at the lineup, there’s a lot of names people don’t recognize too much.
“They haven’t played a lot. They played good. They played just good enough.”