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Four Home Runs Not Enough to Close Series as Arkansas Still Has Work to Do

The Hogs mercy-ruled Oklahoma but with SEC positioning on the line and different pitcher Saturday, nothing's decided yet.
Andy Hodges|
Arkansas Razorbacks Maika Niu against the Oklahoma Sooners.
Arkansas Razorbacks Maika Niu against the Oklahoma Sooners. | Arkansas Communications

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Arkansas Razorbacks

A mercy rule final score of 12-2 against a ranked Oklahoma team at Baum-Walker Stadium looked effortless and dominant.

Arkansas cranked four homers in seven innings. It looked like a team that had figured something out at exactly the right time.

There is a warning attached, though.

Razorback fans have been here before. They know better than to count a series as clinched before Saturday's first pitch even crosses the plate.

Friday was genuinely impressive for the No. 17 Hogs against the No. 24 Sooners.

Arkansas went deep four times, sent nine different players across home plate and chased Oklahoma starter LJ Mercurius after recording just four outs.

The final score was 12-2 in seven innings, the kind of result that makes a fan base feel like the postseason rotation is clicking at the right moment.

It's the second straight Friday the Hogs have won a series opener by that exact score in that exact number of innings.

It's still not a guarantee of anything.

A Game When Everything Clicked at Plate

Let's give credit where it's due, because Friday's offensive display was worth appreciating on its own terms.

Oklahoma struck first in the top of the second with back-to-back singles, but Arkansas answered immediately with five runs on five hits in the bottom half.

Maika Niu opened the Hogs' scoring with an RBI double, then TJ Pompey added an RBI single before Damian Ruiz capped the inning with a two-run home run to left field into the Hog Pen.

That kind of rapid response to giving up the game's first run is a sign of a lineup that isn't rattled. It's also a sign of a lineup that got a favorable matchup against a pitcher who couldn't find his footing.

The most unexpected contribution of the night came from Alexander Peck.

Peck was called into action for just the sixth time in SEC play after Carter Rutenbar was injured when the ball took a bad hop and struck him in the face. The situation could've deflated the Razorbacks.

Instead, Peck launched a two-run home run for his first extra-base hit as a college player, stretching the lead to 7-2. He'd been just 1-for-14 on the season entering that at-bat. Nobody writes those kinds of moments into a script.

Camden Kozeal then delivered the crushing blow in the sixth with a grand slam to straightaway center, his 15th homer of the year, tying catcher Ryder Helfrick for the team lead.

What made it even more interesting was how Arkansas set it up. Despite the long-ball production throughout the game, the Razorbacks used back-to-back bunt singles from Pompey and Ruiz to load the bases before Kozeal swung for the fences.

Oklahoma entered the series leading the SEC in stolen bases, known for their small-ball approach and the Hogs used that same chapter of the playbook right back against them.

Kozeal finished 3-for-4 with four RBI and had a fourth hit taken away by a nice catch in right field.

Niu put the final stamp on the run-rule in the bottom of the seventh with a solo shot to left field — a nice bookend to his earlier RBI double that started the Hogs' scoring.

Dietz Keeps Rolling, But Context Matters

Hunter Dietz didn't have his best command Friday and that's worth noting.

He allowed one earned run on seven hits, walked three and threw 99 pitches before getting credit for a complete game because of the run-rule.

His season ERA dropped to a season-low 3.22 and Arkansas has won each of the last six games he's started. He moved to 7-2 on the year.

That six-game winning streak in his starts is a meaningful number. It means the Hogs have been executing when it counts on their scheduled ace day.

It means the offense has been there to support him even when he's not at his sharpest. That's a functional team doing what functional teams do.

But none of that transfers directly to Saturday's game.

Arkansas is still fighting for positioning both in the SEC standings and on the NCAA Tournament bubble and the postseason picture won't get clearer by Friday's final score alone.

The Stakes Don't Change With One Win

Here's the situation Arkansas is actually in heading into Saturday.

The Razorbacks entered the weekend 2.5 games out of fourth place in the SEC standings, which carries a coveted double bye in the conference tournament.

They also held the final single-bye spot at No. 8 in the SEC with four teams within two games of them in the standings — including Oklahoma.

That means Friday's result, while welcome, didn't dramatically reorder the math. The Sooners are still right there.

A Saturday loss keeps this series alive until Sunday and puts pressure right back on the Hogs heading into the final week of the regular season.

Arkansas is also clinging to outside chances to host an NCAA regional for the fourth straight year.

Projections currently have the Hogs traveling rather than hosting, which means there's real incentive to keep stacking results.

A series win Saturday clinches the weekend early and gives them a chance to make a genuine statement in the final push.

What to Watch Saturday

Oklahoma is scheduled to send junior left-hander Cameron Johnson to the mound Saturday, a pitcher carrying a 6-1 record and 2.96 ERA.

That is a considerably different challenge than what Arkansas saw Friday from Mercurius, who couldn't find his footing and didn't make it out of the second inning.

Arkansas hadn't announced its Saturday starter as of Friday evening.

The Sooners' bullpen also deserves credit for stabilizing Friday after the early implosion.

Nick Wesloski came in after Mercurius and did solid work to slow the bleeding before the game got fully out of hand in the later innings.

Oklahoma's position players aren't going to mail it in the rest of the weekend either. They came into Fayetteville at 30-17 and still ranked inside the top 25.

There's a reason these weekend series in the SEC are three games and not one.

Don't Sleep on the Sooners

The Razorbacks need to close this thing out Saturday and not drag it to Sunday.

The injury to Rutenbar adds a layer of uncertainty to the lineup going forward. Peck had been used in SEC play just five other times before Friday night. His home run was a great moment, but he's not a proven commodity in this conference yet.

Niu was dropped in the batting order heading into Friday after a difficult series against Ole Miss and he responded with one of his better nights of the season.

That kind of bounce-back is a good sign. But the best teams in the SEC don't give opponents two chances to beat them in a weekend when they can help it.

Arkansas can put this away on Saturday.

The offense showed Friday it's capable of producing in bunches when things are working. Saturday's first pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. and will stream on SEC Network+.

The Hogs earned a good night Friday. Now they have to earn the series.

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Andy Hodges
ANDY HODGES

Sports columnist, writer, former radio host and television host who has been expressing an opinion on sports in the media for over four decades. He has been at numerous media stops in Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi.

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