Old-School 'Small-Ball' Delivers Series-Clinching Win for Razorbacks

Brady Tygart has good, but short return, Will McEntire does bulk of work downing Aggies

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Apr 29, 2023 12:39 AM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Brady Tygart will get most of the headlines, but after throwing 20 pitches in the first inning, he turned things over to Will McEntire did most of the work in Arkansas' 10-4 win over Texas A&M on Friday night at Baum-Walker Stadium. It clinched the series against the Aggies.

Now the Razorbacks will look for a series sweep Saturday at 11 a.m.

"His breaking ball is usually always good," Hogs coach Dave Van Horn said later. "I don’t know if he threw much else. He’s got a good changeup now. He has a two-seamer that takes off, but we just wanted to see him go out and compete and kind of get his feet wet again. Kind of give us a little bit of hope, honestly."

For a pitching staff that has been trying to figure things out most of the season due to injuries and last weekend's sweep on the road it was a huge, albeit brief, appearance from the sophomore right-hander from Bryant.

Thursday night's 8-4 win over the Aggies may have been bigger, though.

"Last night was so big for us," Van Horn said. "Tonight we knew we were going to throw our starter one inning. Then McEntire came in and was getting 'em out. Our hitters did a great job. Our guys fouled off pitches, got hits and scored runs. We wouldn't give 'em the momentum."

When they had the momentum in the seventh inning on a two-run homer by Jordan Thompson that cut the Hogs' lead to 6-4, but it was answered. Ben McLaughlin's two run homer in the bottom of the inning gave the Hogs an 8-4 lead and they added a couple of more for insurance in the bottom of the inning for the win.

The Hogs' only homer was by McLaughlin, so they created a lot of it just playing ball. They also got some really good defense.

"The old-school small ball," Van Horn said. "I’ve had teams that played that a little bit. It’s been a while. Especially down in the order there, we needed to play it. Those guys are more defenders than they are offensive guys. And turn it over to the top, it was good the way we just kept passing it down the line. Everybody did their job."

Tygart's brief outing was clean. He didn't give up any hits, walked just one and was about as good as Van Horn could wanted. McEntire threw 91 pitches, giving up just three earned runs, striking out eight and only walking three.

The Razorbacks can sweep the Aggies when the two teams wrap up their three-game set at 11 a.m. Saturday in a contest that will air on the SEC Network. Neither team has officially announced a starting pitcher, although Schlossnagle said he will likely turn to left-hander Justin Lamkin and Van Horn ruled out righty Ben Bybee.