FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas pitcher Brady Tygart started Friday night’s game in his return from an elbow injury and Gage Wood finished it.
In between, the No. 6 Razorbacks got a strong relief outing from Will McEntire and a steady stream of runs to beat Texas A&M 10-4 at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Wood, a freshman right-hander, went the final 2 1/3 innings to earn his fourth save — all in SEC games. He didn’t allow a run and had five strikeouts, and left the bases loaded in the ninth inning when Trevor Werner grounded out to end the game.
McEntire (6-2) got the victory with 5 2/3 innings of relief after Tygart pitched a scoreless first inning in his first game since suffering an elbow injury March 1.
The Razorbacks (32-11, 13-7 SEC) pushed their lead to 8-4 in the seventh inning when Caleb Cali hit a one-out single and designated hitter Ben McLaughlin followed with his first home run as a Razorback — after transferring from Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College — on the first pitch of the at-bat from Josh Stewart.
It was McLaughlin’s 38th at-bat of the season.
“I’m thinking in my head, ‘Man, this guy doesn’t have a home run yet. This would be a perfect time for it,’ ” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “And he hit a wall-scrapper. A line drive that just got out. That was big.
“That’s when as a coach you start thinking, ‘OK, maybe this is our night.’
“They threw him a first-pitch fastball, knee-high, probably down and in, and he just let it fly. He hammered it.”
McLaughlin, who was out earlier in the season recovering from a knee injury, is in the lineup because of injuries to Jared Wegner (thumb) and Tavian Josenberger (hamstring).
“I had a lot of at-bats with not any home runs and it was nice to finally get one,” McLaughlin said.
Arkansas made it 10-4 with two runs in the eighth inning, including an RBI single by Jace Bohrofen after Parker Rowland walked, advanced on Kendall Diggs’ single and scored on a throwing error by Texas A&M shortstop Hunter Haas.
Things got tense for the Razorbacks in the top of the seventh inning when the Aggies scored two runs with two outs to cut Arkansas’ lead to 6-4 and left the bases loaded.
Wood struck out Werner swinging to maintain the Razorbacks’ two-run lead.
McEntire struck out Austin Bost and Jace LaViolette to start the seventh, then walked Ryan Targac on four pitches.
“McEntire gave us everything he had,” Van Horn said.
Christian Foutch replaced McEntire and gave up a two-run home run to Jordan Thompson, then walked Max Kaufer and Haas.
Gage came in and hit Jack Moss with a 0-1 pitch, then struck out Werner.
“Well, it was big,” Van Horn said of Wood limiting the damage in the seventh inning. “It was the game.
“If they catch us there and get a base hit and tie it, it’s gut-wrenching. … But Wood came through and made some good pitches.”
Texas A&M Coach Jim Schlossnagle said he was impressed.
“Wood was great,” he said. “He obviously is going to be a really good pitcher.”
Tygart pitched a scoreless inning on 20 pitches.
“I felt like I still didn’t have my best stuff,” Tygart said. “Definitely have stuff to work on, but it felt good getting back on the field.”
Arkansas took a 5-1 lead in the fourth inning when the Razorbacks scored three runs against reliever Ecan Aschenbeck.
Brady Slavens led off with a grounder that looked like it would be a routine out before the ball hit the bag and bounced high into the air over the first baseman Moss and rolled into foul territory.
Slavens got to third base standing up before the Aggies could chase down the ball. Hunter Grimes walked, then Rowland bunted for a single that scored Slavens. John Bolton bunted on a 1-2 pitch for a sacrifice that advanced Grimes and Rowland to third and second base.
Diggs’ infield single scored Grimes and Peyton Stovall’s sacrifice fly to left field brought in Rowland.
“I mean, it’s crazy how things work sometimes,” Van Horn said. “The old-school small ball. I’ve had teams that played that a little bit. It’s been a while.
“Especially down in the order there, we needed to play it. Those guys [Rowland at catcher and Bolton at shortstop] are more defenders than they are offensive guys.
“It was good the way we just kept passing it down the line. Everybody did their job, whether it was a bunt or putting the bat on the ball to drive in a run with an out.”
Schlossnagle was doing an in-game TV interview when Slavens tripled.
“Sometimes that’s just how things go,” Schlossnagle said after the game. “That’s tough.”
Kaufer’s home run in the fifth inning pulled the Aggies (25-18, 9-11) within 5-2.
The Razorbacks made it 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth when McLaughlin scored a wild pitch with two outs after hitting a leadoff double and advancing to third base on Slavens’ ground out.
McEntire replaced Tygart for the second inning, when the Aggies scored on Austin Bost’s walk and LaViolette’s RBI double to take a 1-0 lead.
The Razorbacks tied it 1-1 in the second inning when Aschenbeck came in for Aggies starting Nathan Dettmer, who left the game with an apparent injury after walking Cali and Bohrofen.
Cali advanced to third base on Slavens’ flyout to center field and scored on Grimes’ sacrifice fly to center.
Bohrofen’s RBI double in the third inning — after Stovall’s two-out single — put Arkansas ahead 2-1.
McEntire settled in and allowed 2 hits, 2 runs and 3 walks with a season-high 8 strikeout on 91 pitches.
“I haven’t come out of the pen since like last year,” McEntire said. “That first inning I kind of struggled a little bit, and I think I just settled down the rest of the game.”
The Razorbacks scored in six of the eight innings they batted. Arkansas scored in three innings the Aggies scored.
“Every time they scored, we scored,” Van Horn said. “We wouldn’t give them the momentum.”