FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas starter Hunter Hollan pitched six innings on his 21st birthday and the eighth-ranked Razorbacks pulled away late to defeat Wright State 6-2 on Sunday.
Arkansas (9-2) swept the three-game series at Baum-Walker Stadium and extended its winning streak to four games. Wright State (2-8) has lost four straight dating to its series finale at Kentucky last week.
Hollan, a junior left-hander who transferred from San Jacinto (Texas) College, allowed 5 hits and 2 walks, and struck out 5 during his 90-pitch outing. He threw 62 pitches for strikes.
“It was good,” Hollan said of having a strong birthday performance. “It’s definitely better than pitching bad.”
Hollan bounced back after a 26-pitch first inning that included the Raiders’ only run against him. Justin Riemer walked to lead off and scored on a sacrifice fly by Gehrig Anglin.
Hollan pitched with base runners — and with Arkansas trailing 1-0 — for much of his outing. He stranded runners in the first, second, third and fifth innings, and Wright State catcher Sammy Sass was thrown out trying to steal second base in the sixth.
Second baseman Peyton Stovall was out of position on the throw from catcher Parker Rowland, but Stovall applied a quick tag to Sass’ elbow for the out. The call was upheld after a review.
“It was a really good tag and a really good throw,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “Peyton was a little late getting to the base. He was playing a little deep.
“But he caught it and tagged all at the same time. It was a great play.”
Hollan said his third start was different because he was able to throw his cutter and slider inside on right-handers better than he had done in his previous starts against Oklahoma State and Eastern Illinois, which lasted a combined 9 2/3 innings. Hollan said the scouting report on him was that he was “living away” from right-handed hitters because he had not been able to hit his spots.
“Today I was throwing it where I wanted to,” Hollan told the Razorback Sports Network.
Jace Bohrofen homered with two outs in the sixth inning to break a tie and give the Razorbacks their first lead at 2-1. Arkansas added four more runs in the seventh on a Rowland home run and RBI singles by Jared Wegner and Bohrofen.
Bohrofen’s two-out single up the middle put the Razorbacks ahead 6-1. He finished 3 for 4 with 3 RBI while hitting fifth in the batting order.
Arkansas out-hit Wright State 11-8.
Bohrofen’s 381-foot opposite-field home run put Hollan in line for the win. It was the only earned run allowed in 6 innings by Wright State right-hander Luke Stofel, who allowed 5 hits and 2 walks, and struck out 6.
Stofel also allowed an unearned run in the fifth inning. Caleb Cali reached on a throwing error and scored to tie the game 1-1 on John Bolton’s one-out RBI single to left field.
“Their starter, I felt like he threw the ball extremely well,” Van Horn said. “He was throwing the ball hard and spotting up his breaking ball away from the right-handers. I don’t know if they expected him to go that long, but he got us to hit into a couple of double plays and just kept getting off the hook with two outs.”
Stofel stranded Arkansas runners in scoring position in the second, third and fourth innings. He allowed 2 earned runs and had a 1.91 WHP in 3 2/3 innings prior to Sunday.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to tip your cap to the pitcher,” said Stovall, who went 2 for 5 and had multiple hits for the fourth consecutive game. “I thought he mixed well. He started mixing the slider — the changeup wasn’t really working for him, but the slider was — and overall I thought he had a good, quality outing for them.
“Ultimately we were able to get a few runs and get his pitch count up, and were able to knock him out of the game.”
The Razorbacks feasted on the Wright State bullpen in the seventh, Rowland, who was batting left-handed, led off with a 405-foot opposite-field home run to left. Warren Hartzell allowed 2 runs without recording an out, and Alex Theis gave up 2 runs, 3 hits and 1 walk while recording 2 outs.
Chris Gallegher walked Cali to load the bases with two outs in the seventh, but the Razorbacks stranded three when Rowland grounded into a fielder’s choice in the 10th at-bat of the inning.
Arkansas failed to score in the eighth when Tavian Josenberger and Stovall had consecutive one-out singles. The inning ended when Wegner struck out and Josenberger was thrown out trying to steal third base.
Riemer, who scored both Wright State runs, singled in the eighth inning and came home on a sacrifice fly by Jay Luikart. The Raiders loaded the bases on a two-out error by the third baseman Cali, but Cali redeemed himself two pitches later by fielding an Andrew Patrick grounder, stepping on third base for a force out and throwing to first for an inning-ending double play.
“The first (ball hit to Cali) was tougher than the second one,” said Van Horn, who added, “I appreciate him not shying away from that second one. It wasn’t like, ‘I kicked one; please don’t hit it to me.’ He’s probably thinking, ‘Hey, hit it to me. I’m going to get me another shot at this,’ and that’s what I saw.”
Cody Adcock pitched 2 2/3 innings to earn his first save. The right-hander allowed 1 run on 3 hits, and struck out 1. He threw 27 of 41 pitches for strikes.
Five hitters reached base by way of a hit, hit batsman or error during the eighth and ninth innings, but Adcock retired every batter he faced following a lead-off single in the ninth.
“He did seem to get a little bit extra there in the ninth,” Van Horn said. “It was a situation where he’s one of the more experienced guys that we have. We really wanted him to face those right-handers in that last inning.”
Adcock replaced Koty Frank, who left the game two pitches into a relief outing in the seventh inning. Frank, a right-hander, appeared to favor an area behind or below his throwing shoulder. Van Horn said after the game he did not have an update on Frank, but knew the injury was not to his arm.
Frank was the third Arkansas pitcher in four games to exit with an injury. Frank and right-hander Brady Tygart, who will miss at least five weeks with a sprain to his ulnar collateral ligament, are two of the Razorbacks’ top relievers, and right-hander Jake Faherty left Saturday’s game with an injury in his season debut.
Arkansas also suffered a season-ending injury to right-hander Jaxon Wiggins during the preseason. Solid weekend performances by Arkansans Adcock (Texarkana), Austin Ledbetter (Bryant) and Dylan Carter (Bentonville West) were a positive development for the Razorbacks.
“Somebody is going to have to step up,” Van Horn said, “because we need some more arms or we’re going to have to make some adjustments on how we handle games.”
The Razorbacks are scheduled to play again Tuesday at 3 p.m. against Army. The Black Knights (5-5) won the Patriot League last season and were predicted to repeat during the preseason.