Razorbacks fall to Lipscomb in 'probably one of our worst games of the year'

Lipscomb base runner Jake Berg (5) slides under Arkansas pitcher Gage Wood to score on a wild pitch during a game Tuesday, May 2, 2023, in North Little Rock.

NORTH LITTLE ROCK — At 5:56 p.m. Tuesday evening, the public address announcer asked for a Hog Call.

With but a few patches of green grass to be seen on the berm ringing the Dickey-Stephens Park outfield berm, the 9,346 fans in cardinal and white rose to their feet and obliged.

There was optimism, and rightly so. Just once in its past 11 visits to North Little Rock had Arkansas come out on the losing end — a 5-4 loss to Memphis in 2015 — and the Razorbacks were facing a Lipscomb team just barely above .500 on the season.

But that was before a pitch was thrown.

The Bisons pulled off a midweek stunner against No. 6 Arkansas, hanging on to send it to extra innings before scoring twice in the top of the 11th to knock off the Razorbacks 8-6.

With Coach Dave Van Horn opting for a bullpen game, Arkansas needed nine pitchers to get through the night and they combined to issue 11 walks, giving Lipscomb more than enough ammunition to complete the upset.

“Even if we’d won the game, we didn’t play good at all,” Van Horn said. “We didn’t pitch good, we didn’t field good, we did not drive in runs. Defensively, we kicked a couple of balls [and] made a bad throw. Overall, it’s probably one of our worst games of the year, honestly.”

Things began to get dicey for the Razorbacks in the top of the sixth inning. Arkansas (33-12) hadn’t scored since Harold Coll’s 428-foot three-run home run off the scoreboard in left in the top of the first inning and Lipscomb (24-21) had since tied it at 3-3.

Ben Bybee, the fifth pitcher for the Hogs, loaded the bases with two singles and a walk, loading the bases for Bisons right fielder Will Lee.

Bybee walked Lee on five pitches, driving in the go-ahead run and forcing Van Horn to go to the bullpen once again.

It was the second time the Razorbacks’ head coach had to pull one of his pitchers before they recorded an out — Christian Foutch walked two of the three batters he faced in the fourth, leading to a pair of Lipscomb runs.

“We had two kids that didn’t get an out and that’s really [hard],” Van Horn said. “When you have limited arms — I mean, we were out of pitching. That was our last pitcher [in the 11th]. That game gets tied, I don’t know what we were going to do.”

Batesville’s Gage Wood replaced Bybee with the bases still loaded and although he was able to get Arkansas out of the inning, the Bisons scored twice more — once on a wild pitch and again on a sacrifice fly — to go up 6-3.

The Razorbacks went down in order in the bottom of the sixth and just Jace Bohrofen reached base in the seventh on a hit-by-pitch.

But things began to shift in the eighth. Ben McLaughlin led off with a double just inside the left-field line. After Coll struck out, Jayson Jones walked and Hudson Polk was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with one out.

Van Horn turned to Hunter Grimes as a pinch-hitter, but he struck out, setting the stage for another pinch-hitter, Brady Slavens.

And without putting bat to ball, Arkansas tied it.

A wild pitch brought McLaughlin in to score, and when Lipscomb catcher Chaz Bertolani overthrew his pitcher covering home, Jones raced down the line to score.

Another wild pitch with Slavens still at the plate allowed pinch-runner Peyton Holt to sprint home. But with Slavens in scoring position after a walk and Kendall Diggs’ hit-by-pitch, Bohrofen struck out to end the threat.

That the Razorbacks were able to even extend the game was a credit to Austin Ledbetter.

The Bryant native pitched four shutout innings, scattering three hits days after being left off Arkansas’ SEC weekend roster.

“It definitely got to me a little bit,” Ledbetter said of being unavailable for the weekend series against Texas A&M. “I just always want to be there for my team and I know I’m good enough to go out there and compete with any team in the country.”

The Razorbacks put men on base in the ninth and 10th innings but couldn’t capitalize. With a shortage of arms, Van Horn sent McLaughlin — who began the game as Arkansas’ designated hitter — to the mound in the 11th.

McLaughlin got two outs, but only after Lipscomb opened with two walks. A single by clean-up hitter Trace Willhoite gave the Bisons a 7-6 lead.

Jake Berg’s sacrifice fly gave the visitors some insurance at 8-6, but it wouldn’t matter as the Razorbacks went in order in the home half of the 11th.

“There was a part of me that was glad there were only two left last week,” Van Horn said when asked if he was happy to be finished with mid-week games this season. “We don’t have enough [players]. We have three games’ worth on the weekend.

“Until we get some guys healthy, we have just enough.”