FAYETTEVILLE — The top-ranked Arkansas baseball team beat the rain and San Jose State on Wednesday at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Playing under gray skies with a threat of showers looming, the Razorbacks defeated the Spartans 8-2 to sweep the two-game midweek series. Arkansas (29-3) won its 10th consecutive game and 23rd in a row at home.
It was perfect timing for the Razorbacks on a day the game was moved ahead by two hours due to a threat of heavy rain.
Just after the game ended, stadium public address announcer Jon Williams announced lightning had been located within 8 miles. Had the game not ended, it would have entered into a long delay.
“We were worried abbot that lightning delay because we knew it was coming,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “We had Roy [Jacobson of stadium event management] standing in the dugout with us, kind of telling us it was getting close.
“It worked out.”
The Razorbacks’ bullpen was strong again and limited San Jose State (12-21) to four hits. The Spartans scored their only runs in the top of the seventh on a two-run home run by Matt Spear, who also homered Tuesday.
Arkansas scored twice in the second and fifth innings to take a 4-0 lead. The Razorbacks responded to the Spartans’ two-run seventh with four runs in the bottom of the inning.
Jack Wagner's 413-foot home run to center field led off the bottom of the seventh. Peyton Stovall (single) and Ben McLaughlin (double) added one-out RBI hits, and Stovall scored on Wehiwa Aloy's sacrifice fly.
Stovall's hit scored Ross Lovich (hit by pitch) and McLaughlin's scored Will Edmunson (infield single).
Wagner (single) scored on Stovall's sac fly and Lovich (single) scored on a two-out single by McLaughlin in the second inning to put the Razorbacks ahead 2-0.
Nolan Souza increased the lead to 4-0 with a two-run double in the fifth to score Aloy (walk) and Kendall Diggs (single). Souza, the reigning SEC freshman of the week, has 13 RBI in his last five starts.
Arkansas had several chances to add to their lead. The Razorbacks had 14 hits but stranded 11 runners on base, including a pair of runners in the first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
“We were a few big hits from blowing the thing open,” Van Horn said. “We didn’t really do that.”
Left-hander Colin Fisher pitched three scoreless innings in his 65-pitch start for the Razorbacks. Koty Frank added two scoreless innings and Jake Faherty retired all three batters he faced in the sixth.
San Jose State’s runs were against lefty Parker Coil, who pitched two innings. He allowed three of the Spartans’ four hits.
Cooper Dossett pitched a perfect ninth inning. Every Arkansas pitcher had at least one strikeout and the team combined for 10.
Why Arkansas won
The Razorbacks’ pitching was great again. In its last four midweek games Arkansas has allowed 3 runs and 9 hits in 32 innings.
Player of the Game: 2B Peyton Stovall
The junior second baseman went 4 for 4 with 2 RBI and scored 1 run.
Stovall singled in the first, sixth and seventh innings, doubled in the fourth and had a sacrifice fly in the second. Stovall regained the team lead with a .377 batting average.
“Today, during the game, I just wanted to stay within my approach and just keep things up the middle and just stay confident,” Stovall said.
Not once, but twice
Edmunson, the center fielder, had diving catches to lead off the top of the sixth inning and to end the top of the seventh.
Edmunson laid out to his right for the catch in the sixth inning and dove after a ball in front of him in the seventh.
“I’ve gotten a lot better at center field,” said Edmunson, who did not play the position in his previous stop at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College. “Ty Wilmsmeyer has helped me a lot out there, just talking tot me and taking reps in [batting practice].”
Hey, Cal!
Those in attendance gave a big cheer in the sixth inning when the police escort for new basketball coach John Calipari passed the stadium along Razorback Road.
Calipari flew into Drake Field a little after 2 p.m. and will be introduced at a news conference Wednesday evening at Bud Walton Arena.
Streak notes
Arkansas’ 23 consecutive home wins are a school record for one season, but four shy of the program record.
The Razorbacks won 27 in a row between the 1984-85 seasons.
Wednesday’s win tied this streak with the second-longest streak in program history. The 1978-79 teams won 23 in a row.
Dietz update
Van Horn said left-hander Hunter Dietz, who left Tuesday's game with trainer Corey Wood during the middle of an inning, had an X-ray “that looked fine” Wednesday and would undergo an MRI on Wednesday night.
Van Horn did not disclose where Dietz was feeling soreness, but said he did not think it was related to his elbow. Dietz underwent a procedure last fall to address a stress fracture in his elbow.
“It’s a mystery right now,” Van Horn said. “We’ve got to figure it out. That’s why we’re going all out to figure this out as fast as we can.”
Up next
Arkansas is scheduled to open a three-game series at Alabama (22-11, 4-8 SEC) on Friday at 6 p.m.