Hogs Turn Back Clock, Become Team Fans Know Against Ole Miss

Van Horn finally gets team he thought he'd built as Arkansas Razorbacks dominate Rebels

Nolan Souza and Kuhio Aloy celebrate Aloy's double that drove in Souza to run-rule No. 17 Ole Miss, 12-2, at Baum-Walker Stadium. | Razorback Communications

To parody 21st century philosopher Dwayne Johnson:
Finally!
The Razorbacks, have come back!
To Fayetteville!

Yes, it's a bit cheesy, but so on the nose for what happened Friday night at Baum-Walker Stadium. While families watched their children play baseball and softball games around the state, wandered around local festivals and hit up the movie theater, perhaps the largest crowd of the Razorbacks baseball season and a handful of people streaming from home saw Arkansas finally evolve into the super team Hogs head coach Dave Van Horn envisioned it could be prior to the season.

The 12-2 run-rule win in seven innings pulled the No. 22 Razorbacks even with No. 17 Ole Miss at 31-16 overall and a game ahead in the SEC standings at 12-10. After weeks of frustration and borderline sadness following several games as Van Horn and his staff tried to drive home important lessons, it all snapped into place Friday night.

It was like a time machine took everything back a few years. The crowd was large and, for once, ready to get rowdy with each strike ace Hunter Dietz threw, and there were a lot.

He had Ole Miss guessing on nearly every pitch, striking out on short at-bats. He fanned nine Rebels in only six innings of work while facing 24 hitters, eight of whom were caught looking.

I bet your little pitching staff doesn't have these cannons pic.twitter.com/tQQthJBEks

— Arkansas Baseball (@RazorbackBSB) May 2, 2026

"[Ole Miss] guessed wrong," Van Horn said. "I really don't have an answer for it. I know that he's maybe one of the top pitchers in the league as far as getting strikes looking, or strikeouts looking. There's something to it. I don't know what it is."

There were more flags than there have been lately and people were actually waving them. It was as if Arkansas fans realized they can bring a little energy to game while trying to make it difficult for Ole Miss to focus.

And when facing Dietz, focus is at a premium, especially when the Hogs fans got crazier with each strike thrown.

"[Ole Miss was] not picking up the ball real good," Van Horn said. "When you throw in the mid-90s and you have a downhill tilt like he has, man, if you're looking for anything but a fastball, and it's a fastball, you're in trouble. And vice versa."

After weeks of tinkering with the line-up, Van Horn finally made a few final key tweaks that set up a rhythm from top to bottom that kept the pressure on at all times as the Hogs walked, singled, doubled, tripled and crushed home runs. If there was a way to get on base and bring in runs, the Razorbacks did it as they racked up 10 hits spread across seven of the nine batting slots.

It was relentless, which is why it was fortunate (yes, that's written correctly) reliever Cooper Dossett gave up a home run in the top of the seventh that kept Arkansas from ending things on a run rule.

That set the stage for Nolan Souza to beat out the throw on a slow grounder up the middle for a single, followed by a blistering opposite field shot by Kuhio Aloy to the right field corner. Souza came motoring around third, never hesitating, easily beating the throw home for the game winning run off what was officially ruled a double.

Kuhio Killshot 🍐 pic.twitter.com/rsczaMB8qI

— Arkansas Baseball (@RazorbackBSB) May 2, 2026

RISE AND SHINE Y'ALL pic.twitter.com/0TMLgqB4zq

— Arkansas Baseball (@RazorbackBSB) May 2, 2026

The reason this mattered was the excitement from walking off Ole Miss rather than getting one more strike the previous inning. Sure, it would have been nice for Dossett to wrap up the win, but the atmosphere and energy around the way it ended was much better.

The crowd, and even those watching on their phones, went home on the ultimate high. The endorphins were still elevated an hour later in the Hogs fans who saw it.

More importantly was the jubilation and genuine happiness spread across Aloy's face. This is a young man who went through a brutal slump in SEC play and, at times, it didn't look like he would ever find his mojo again.

like a wild band of HAWGS 🐗 pic.twitter.com/PUFtM5jcd4

— Arkansas Baseball (@RazorbackBSB) May 2, 2026

But, he went to work. Hogs hitting coach Nate Thompson put endless energy into rebuilding the young man, and a couple of weeks ago it began to show.

The plate appearances got longer as patience grew and eventually the walks started happening. Along with the walks showing up in the score book, a few hits started trickling in as Aloy began to cut down on the pop-ups in favor of hard hit singles here and there.

Still, there was regression last week against Missouri as he went 1-for-5 with a single walk, resulting in Van Horn sitting Aloy during a frustrating unexpected loss to the Tigers, their only home SEC win of the season. However, Aloy's light flickered back on Wednesday against Northwestern.

His swing leveled out, combining with the patience he had shown heading into the Missouri series, setting up a 2-for-3 performance with a walk, an RBI and a pair of runs. The only question was whether the performance against Northwestern would carry over into SEC play against a hot Ole Miss team.

Sure enough, Aloy brought his "A" game, hoping once again to set the table for the steady, hot hitting lead-off freshman, Carter Rutenbar. Unfortunately for the Hogs, Rutenbar went cold for the first time in a long time, going 0-for-3.

However, the flip side of that coin was Aloy picking up the slack, plating runs with powerful swings that Rutenbar normally would have driven in. He drove in three runs while finishing a triple short of the cycle.

His home run to lead off the fourth inning to stretch the Hogs' lead to 6-0 was one of four Arkansas home runs while the Hogs were a foot away from five deep balls as Souza dropped one inches short in front of the 400-foot sign.

"He's seeing the ball a lot better and you're not chasing hits," Van Horn said. "That will send you into a tailspin. He's been swinging the bat a lot better the last couple of weeks. Really, we could see it coming. We could see that he's starting to get it going a little bit, recognizing pitches. Our line-up tonight, it was good one through nine. They fought them all the way down."

At one point, Camden Kozeal set the place on fire with a blast to right field that combined extreme power with wind to look like it may never land. The following is a legit text message sent to a hardcore Razorbacks fan who was having to miss the game to serve as a personal cheerleader to a middle schooler at the Gold Rush 5K in downtown Bentonville.

"Duck!!!"
"Huh?"
"That home run Cam Kozeal just smashed is about to hit you. 5-0"

That's the kind of moment and type of fun that used to be as common with Razorbacks baseball as the Hogs flicking away a No. 17 team by run ruling them in Baum-Walker Stadium. It's a feeling that hasn't been had by Arkansas fans all season.

Sure, there were signs it might be possible, especially during the sweep of Alabama. But, everything still always felt like it was about to tip over and shatter into pieces.

The veterans in the middle of the line-up weren't hitting and the pitching was a bit of a crapshoot. Now, Van Horn has a dominant Friday night starter, despite his inexperience, and suddenly all parts of the batting order are producing.

This should terrify the rest of college baseball and send a jolt of energy throughout the Arkansas fan base. Saturday afternoon should be a wild scene full of beer hat wearing, barbecue grilling Hogs fans screaming their heads off and waving flags as if they are actuallly charging into battle.

If the ball truly gets rolling both with the players and the fans, this could be a massive shift in power across the SEC. Of course, this could just be a flash in the pan.

A single night where it all looked looked like the days of old. However, it's unlikely.

It's been a slow build making Dietz into an elite Friday night starter and an even slower rebuild of Aloy. That kind of development doesn't just disappear overnight.

If Arkansas can somehow ride the fans' energy to a series win, that will be a huge boost toward their argument to host a regional. Getting a sweep would definitely put the Hogs in the discussion.

It all just depends on how the Razorbacks respond today. As a less talented Rebels team proved to one of the best Arkansas rosters of all time at the College World Series a few years ago, Ole Miss can run a Hogs party like no other team.