No. 22 Alabama Baseball Falls to No. 1 Arkansas, 9-1

The series between No. 22 Alabama baseball and No. 1 Arkansas is now split one game apiece as the Razorbacks downed the Crimson Tide on Saturday night in Fayetteville, 9-1.

After beating the top-ranked team in the country on Friday night, Alabama's bats were fairly silent on Saturday. Alabama's one run in the game came off of a line out by sophomore second baseman Peyton Wilson in the top of the sixth, advancing sophomore shortstop Jim Jarvis across the plate.

"Arkansas simply played better than we did tonight," Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon said. "I thought we competed well for five innings and then the game got away from us late. We will need to both hit and pitch better for all nine innings tomorrow if we want to win the series."

For the Arkansas lineup, senior catcher Casey Opitz led the team with three RBIs on the way to the win. Opitz led off the Razorbacks' scoring with a solo home run in the top of the third, then had an RBI single in both the sixth and the eighth innings.

On the mound for Arkansas, senior right-handed pitcher Zebulon Vermillion was stellar. Through eight complete innings pitched, Vermillion allowed only one run off of one hit, struck out four and walked only two batters.

In the opposite dugout, Alabama struggled in the pitching department. Starter Dylan Smith allowed three runs off of five hits through 4 and two-thirds innings pitched, while two of the Crimson Tide's relievers in Jacob McNairy and Jake Eddington also each allowed three runs.

Vermillion (2-0) was credited with the win for Arkansas while Smith (0-2) was saddled with the loss for Alabama.

The Crimson Tide and the Razorbacks will conclude its series on Sunday afternoon (2 p.m. CT, SEC Network).