Pair of Early Homers, Depth of Razorbacks' Bullpen Finishes Texas Tech Sweep
Back-to-back one-run wins extends Hogs' record to a quarter century wins at Baum
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas completed a two-game sweep of the Texas Tech Raiders 5-4 Wednesday and secured its program record 25th straight win at Baum-Walker Stadium.
"It’s real good." Dave Van Horn mentioned after the game. "I made the comment a couple days ago that I was glad we were playing a Power 5 school and a team that already has 26 wins. They had some good numbers. We were going to have to play good and take advantage of some things to try to find a way to win one of them, much less two."
The Razorbacks were held to two hits through the first five innings, but the ones they did get were quite powerful. Peyton Stovall led off the game with a 406-foot homer to right on the third pitch of the game.
"[I was] sitting fastball middle-middle and he just kind of hung a changeup," Stovall said. "Put a good swing on it, it was awesome. I was kind of glad that I could get a little spark going for offense."
After Texas Tech tied the game up in the top of the second on a ball that shortstop Wehiwa Aloy lost in the sun, Nolan Souza hit his seventh homer of the year, a 376-foot opposite-field homer to lead off the second.
Texas Tech took the lead in the third on a ground-rule double down the right field line that plated two runs off starter Colin Fisher. Fisher went four innings and allowed three runs, two of them earned.
Arkansas' bullpen was impeccable behind Fisher. Koty Frank, Cooper Dossett, Jake Faherty and Stone Hewlett combined for five innings of one-run ball. The only blemish was a two-out solo homer off the bat of Cade McGee in a two-run game charged to Hewlett.
The Razorbacks' next hit didn't come until the bottom of the sixth. Peyton Holt, playing centerfield for the second straight day, led off the sixth with a walk. Ben McLaughlin and Aloy followed back-to-back singles to tie the game at 3.
With runners on first and second, Nolan Souza laid down a sacrifice bunt that pushed the go-ahead run 90 feet away with one out. Jack Wagner was credited with the go-ahead RBI on a deep flyout to center.
The Hogs added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, which ended up being the winning run when Jayson Jones got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to make the score 5-3 at the time.
The Razorbacks resume SEC play against South Carolina on the road 6 p.m. Friday. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
HOGS FEED:
• Hogs' Peyton Holt proving to be the Swiss Army knife for Dave Van Horn's team this year
• Primer for Razorback Gymnastics national semifinal
• With Calipari hiring, Razorbacks now back on track as basketball first school
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