Razorbacks Get Homers to Down Ole Miss, 4-3
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas got the series win over Ole Miss.
But it wasn't easy.
At the end of the season, this one will be a big series for the Razorbacks and will leave the Rebels' faithful frustrated. It didn't take long to see what others saw in Ole Miss in the preseason.
They are good.
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Everything for the Hogs came on the long ball in a three-game series. A pair of two-out homers lifted the Hogs to victory in game three.
"We had two big swings with two outs," Dave Van Horn said later.
Chris Lanzilli got a 2-1 lead with a homer to left field in the third inning, but Ole Miss got the lead back.
Michael Turner's homer in the fifth put Arkansas up 4-3 with a homer to right.
"We just flipped 10 hits around but couldn't string them together," Van Horn said. "We got two big hits with two outs and a runner on."
Van Horn's not going to nit-pick getting a huge series win by over-analyzing the wins. He knows this team has lived and died with the long ball all year.
"They weren’t doubles, they were home runs," Van Horn said about the two big hits Sunday. "They drove in two each time and we scored just enough.
"We got three big, big hits in the last 24 hours ... that’s a start."
Michael Morrison / allHOGS Images
Those hits wouldn't have really mattered, though, without some big pitching after Jaxon Wiggins didn't have a particularly great start.
Ole Miss jumped out to an early one-run advantage getting to Wiggins in the top of the first. He held on for the next couple of innings.
The big hits bailed him out of each jam.
Brady Tygart emerged from the bullpen to throw three scoreless innings with five strikeouts.
"Brady has just been in that situation this season already, probably four to five times, where it’s been super tense," Van Horn said. "He did a better job staying under control today better than ever because today he didn’t get any calls really."
That was a sideways reference at the umpires, who had an interesting take on the strike zone that had both teams complaining all three games of the series.
Zach Morris proceeded to throw three scoreless frames in middle relief, allowing just one hit and two walks over the course of his outing. He kept Arkansas’ deficit at one, which gave Turner the opportunity to provide the game’s offensive heroics in the bottom of the fifth.
"What he's done lately is just throw the ball over the plate," Van Horn said. "A couple of his outings he’s really been able to spot it up. I mean, he just made them swing the bat and we fielded it. That’s all you can ask for from guys sometimes."
Arkansas Communications
The Razorbacks, 34-10 overall and 14-7 in SEC play on the year, extended their SEC-leading consecutive home series winning streak to 12 with Sunday’s win.
Arkansas, which earned its first home series win against Ole Miss since 2015, has won back-to-back series wins over the Rebels for the first time since the 2010 and 2011 seasons.
Arkansas looks ahead to its final midweek contest of the season, hosting Missouri State on Tuesday night at Baum-Walker Stadium. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+.