Steady Eddy Defense Greatest Growth For Razorbacks' Wehiwa Aloy
Cutting down on errors in the field, rounds Sacramento State Transfer into more complete player
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas' 11-1 win over the Arkansas Pine-Bluff Golden Lions to improve to 35-6 will go down in the books as another routine mid-week win for the Razorbacks, who are now 10-0 in midweek games. While shortstop Wehiwa Aloy went 4-for-4 at the plate with 5 RBIs, it may have been his glove that helped the Razorbacks open up the offense.
The Golden Lions fought hard for five and a half innings. They had the tying run on first base in a 3-1 game in the top of the sixth when Aloy backhanded a groundball deep into the outfield grass before throwing to his Hawaiian counterpart Nolan Souza waiting at third to retire the side.
"Instinct just took over," Aloy said. "I saw that he was running towards the bag, so I just threw it over there."
An inning earlier, he also started a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning in a 1-1 game in the fifth, with the go-ahead run waiting on first, to cap off Cooper Dossett's three scoreless innings on the mound.
All of this is the latest example of Aloy addressing one of his question marks coming into the season. Aloy made 17 errors in his freshman season at Sacramento State, a majority of them he attributes to throwing errors. This season, he's committed just four errors in 41 games at shortstop on 109 putout chances and being involved in 14 double plays.
"Wehiwa’s done a great job defensively," coach Dave Van Horn said. "He’s steady eddy, not super flashy, just makes plays."
It's part of a solid Arkansas defense overall that has committed just 25 errors on the year and a .982 fielding percentage that ranks fourth highest in the nation.
"It’s what you want your shortstop to be, "Van Horn said. "Just a guy that makes a routine play and make a great one every now and then. You look up at the end of the year and the fielding percentage is real good and probably the team has won a lot of games if your shortstop and your second baseman are pretty good."
The Razorbacks now welcome Florida to Baum-Walker Stadium for a three-game weekend set. Game one is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday and will be broadcast on SEC Network.
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