FAYETTEVILLE — All the No. 1 Arkansas baseball team had to do Saturday was wait out Missouri starter Javyn Pimental.
Pimental, a junior lefty, took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and threw five scoreless, but the Tigers’ bullpen labored through a six-run sixth that turned a tight game into a runaway in front of an announced 10,434 at Baum-Walker Stadium.
The Razorbacks won 6-0 to record their 12th consecutive victory.
"Baseball is funny," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. "Nothing happens for five innings and then we explode for six."
Peyton Stovall, Wehiwa Aloy and Kendall Diggs hit back-to-back-to-back home runs to lead off the sixth inning against Missouri right-hander Bryce Mayer. A game that was scoreless through 5 1/2 innings turned into a 3-0 Arkansas lead in the span of six pitches.
"That was a big inning for us, especially in a conference game where we hadn’t done much," Van Horn said. "They make a pitching change, we get a big hit and now everybody thinks they can hit."
It was the second time in as many seasons the Razorbacks hit home runs in three consecutive at-bats. Stovall and Diggs were also part of the rare feat last season when they and Caleb Cali did it in the seventh inning of Arkansas’ game against Illinois State.
"It was nice to get that started," Stovall said. "Credit to their starter; he did really good. We put some good swings on those balls in the sixth.”
The Razorbacks (16-2, 2-0 SEC) added three more runs in the sixth inning when former Mizzou outfielder Ross Lovich hit a two-out, two-run triple against Mayer. Following a pitching change, Lovich scored to give Arkansas a 6-0 lead when Charlie Miller threw a wild pitch on his first pitch in relief.
All of Arkansas' runs were charged to Mayer, who recorded two outs. Pimental allowed 1 hit, walked 1 and struck out 4 in 5 innings.
Right-handers Brady Tygart (4 2/3 innings) and Will McEntire (4 1/3) combined for a one-hitter and gave the Razorbacks their second consecutive shutout over the Tigers. Arkansas won Friday’s series opener 8-0.
The Razorbacks lowered their ERA to 2.43 after entering the weekend with the NCAA’s fourth-best ERA of 2.74.
It was the first combined nine-inning one-hitter for Arkansas since a March 2019 game against Western Illinois.
Tygart had some command issues with 4 walks and 2 hit batsmen, but allowed 1 hit in the fourth inning and threw 51 of 87 pitches for strikes. He worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth and gave way to McEntire after a pair of two-out free passes in the fifth.
McEntire struck out 5, walked 1 and threw 36 of 56 pitches for strikes. Van Horn called McEntire's outing "outstanding." Missouri coach Kerrick Jackson compared it to a Kevin Kopps outing from his 2021 Golden Spikes Award-winning season.
"When you see him throw that cutter the way he's throwing it, you think about Kopps and how well he was with his cutter," Jackson said.
Tygart walked the bases loaded with two outs in the fourth, but Aloy, the shortstop, made a leaping catch on a line drive by Missouri shortstop Matt Garcia to save at least two runs.
McEntire struck out three-hole hitter Jackson Lovich to strand two runners in the fifth. The Tigers were 0 for 7 with runners on base.
"I really enjoy coming out of the [bullpen] just becuase you don’t really know when you’ll come in," McEntire said, "so you've just got to be in the moment."
Arkansas recorded back-to-back shutouts against SEC teams in regulation games for the first time since the 2007 SEC Tournament, where it won by matching 6-0 scores over Alabama and South Carolina.
The Razorbacks had wins of 2-0 and 3-0 during an April 14, 2018, doubleheader against South Carolina. Both games were seven innings.
In 2016, Arkansas won 1-0 in 10 innings and 2-0 in 7 innings back-to-back at Kentucky.
"It’s hard to shut [an SEC team] out once, much less twice," Van Horn said. "Back-to-back is something else."
Missouri (9-10, 0-2) had not been shut out prior to its trip to Arkansas. The Razorbacks recorded their third shutout.
Why Arkansas won
The Razorbacks used the same formula to beat the Tigers as Friday night — great pitching and big swings. It is hard to lose when you do not give up a run.
Player of the Game: Arkansas SS Wehiwa Aloy
Aloy contributed to a run with his solo homer in the sixth and he likely took away a multiple-run hit for the Tigers with his leaping catch from shortstop in the fourth.
Up next
Arkansas will go for a series sweep of Missouri on Sunday at 2 p.m.