Live Blog: Arkansas vs. Murray State, Game 1
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark – Welcome once again to Baum-Walker Stadium where today the Razorbacks begin a three-game series against Murray State. The Racers come in 6-2 and pose a dangerous weekend test for the Hogs.
Hagan Smith will get the start for Arkansas today with the chance to prove his record setting performance against Oregon State in Arlington is who he truly is versus his quick outing against James Madison to open the season.
Carson Garner is the big threat today. He leads Murray St. in batting average (.440), slugging (1.040), on-base percentage (.632), RBI (13) and home runs (5).
Weather
As everyone knows, weather is always a factor at Baum-Walker. However, today may be as uneventful as it will ever get in Fayetteville. The temps will range from 55°-58° and it will be mostly sunny with a light wind out of the southwest. So, all in all, it should be a very pleasant day for baseball.
Need to Familiarize Yourself with This Year's Team?
Take time to look through our in-depth coverage of everything fans could ever want to know about this year's Razorbacks. You will not only catch up on the latest developments, but will have tons of opportunities to get to know a lot of the new players fans will see today.
Read Key Stories
VAN HORN UPDATES TIME TABLE FOR PEYTON STOVALL'S RETURN
HOGS CAN GET HEAD START ON SCOUTING TEXAS AGAINST SEC ELITES THIS WEEK
FRESHMAN GIVES ARKANSAS ANSWER TO PREVIOUSLY LINGERING LINE-UP QUESTION
Starting line-up:
Top 1st:
We told you this Murray State team is dangerous. Hagan Smith gets his second pitch up in the zone and Vogel sends this one deep to right field. There is no doubt about this one as it's way out of here and the Hogs trail right off the bat.
Mercer lifts one deep to left, but Jones is able to get under for the first out of the game. Then Smith throws a nasty breaking ball to get Hogart out swinging.
Garner, the heavy hitter for this Racers' team, lifts one deep to center, but there is plenty of stadium to hold this one and that will end the inning.
Murray St. 1, Arkansas 0
Bottom 1st:
Vernon is a veteran pitcher for Murray State. He's a guy you expect to eat up a lot of innings and he gets Hudson White on an off-speed pitch, inducing an easy pop-up to center.
Diggs hits a high floater to left. Sprague-Lott does the same to right and Arkansas does little to show itself as a threat in that inning. The Razorbacks showed no interest in watching pitches or making Vernon really work his pitches.
Murray St. 1, Arkansas 0
Top 2nd:
Smith throws a cutter in on the hands of the lefty Hawthorn and he twists him up for a lead-off strikeout. Smith follows by sitting down Howell with a slider on the outer part of the plate and that's three for the Razorbacks ace already.
He strikes out out Estes swinging. He hit 98 on a fastball on the second strike and if he didn't have every mile per hour on that one, it would have ended up in the Hog Pen. That four strikeouts now.
Murray St. 1, Arkansas 0
Bottom 2nd:
The Razorbacks show a little more patience this inning. McLaughlin walks on five pitches to give Arkansas its first base runner of the game.
This brings up Aloy, a youngster who is in desperate need of a hit. He has really labored at the plate so far this season. And he's hacking away. He looks like teenager grabbing an axe for the first time and just swinging as hard as he can.
He finally takes a more traditional baseball swinging and Aloy rolls a grounder up the middle for a base hit. That's the first time he's extended his arms and really kept his body under control. The Razorbacks certainly hope that's a sign of good things to come as the Hogs now have runners at first and second with no outs.
Hudson Polk hits a chopper to third that's going to be trouble and there's no throw. Arkansas has bases loaded.
And there won't be any drama around this one. Jayson Jones takes the first pitch he sees to opposite field on a hard liner that will bring in two runs to give the Hogs their first lead of the game.
Peyton Holt hits a chopper to short that will lead to a force out at third, but Polk will come home to extend the lead to 3-1.
Wilmsmeyer hits one deep to center. It's back to the warning track and it will just stay in the park. Had there been any wind to speak of today that would have been gone. As it is, it's a long out. White follows with a chopper to second that will end the inning.
The ball gets away from White on a strike and Bland moves into scoring position at second. Mercer, who was 9-of-15 in his last three games, chases what would have been Ball 3 up by his eyes to give Smith another strikeout on a 96 mph fast ball.
Arkansas 3, Murray St. 1
Top 3rd:
Krizen hits the first pitch he sees hard to left field. It will go directly to Jones. He barely missed a home run on that one. He had a great swing and just barely missed it.
Bland faced two strikes to start, then fouled off what would have been strike three. He then watches four straight balls to draw the walk. That brings Vogel back to the plate in search of his second home run of the game.
Smith records his fifth strikeout of the game with another slider on the outside corner. Vogel couldn't help swinging.
Smith then gets his sixth with a high fastball that no one was going to catch up to.
Arkansas 3, Murray St. 1
Bottom 3rd:
Diggs takes a hack at what would have been Ball 3 up by his eyes and chops it to first for an easy out. Then Vernon gets Sprague-Lott leaning on an off-speed pitch for a weak grounder to short that caused Sprague-Lott to stumble as he tried to get his feet under him to run.
McLaughlin draws his second walk of the game. It was his walk in the second that started the rally. Aloy follows with a hard grounder into left. Once again, his body looked more quiet when he swung. That's a great sign for Arkansas fans.
There won't be another rally though. Polk lifts a 1-0 pitch to left field for an easy out.
Arkansas 3, Murray St. 1
Top 4th:
Hogart lifts the first pitch he sees to left for an easy out. Then Smith absolutely blows a third strike fastball at 96 on the inside part of the plate past Garner on a full count. He just watched it shoot by. That's seven K's now for Smith.
Make it eight. He throws three pitches to Hawthorne, the final two of which he swung at without getting close. Smith is in the zone now and there's not a lot Murray State can do about it.
Arkansas 3, Murray St. 1
Bottom 4th:
Jones put a lift in the first pitch he saw and it almost gets out of here, but it will hold for a long out to right.
Holt then lined a single to center and followed with a steal of second. Wilmsmeyer followed by watching strike three go by.
Holt advances to third on a wild pitch with two outs. White flies out to left to end the threat and we're almost halfway done in only one hour,
Arkansas 3, Murray St. 1
Top 5th:
Smith is only in the mid-50s on his pitch count. He works a pitch inside on the hands to Howell and there was no way he was hitting that. That's a strikeout on five of the last six batters as he's reached nine K's on the day.
He sits down Estes down swinging on a full count for No. 10, then he follows by getting Krizen swinging on a full count pitch on the outer part of the plate and Krizen was just guessing on that one. That's 11 strikeouts on 71 pitches. It will interesting to see if Van Horn lets him come back out for the sixth.
Arkansas 3, Murray St. 1
Bottom 5th:
Three grounders on eight pitches makes short work of the Razorbacks as Diggs, Sprague-Lott and McLaughlin fail to get anything out of the infield, possibly extending Vernon for another inning.
Arkansas 3, Murray St. 1
Top 6th:
Smith will come back out for the sixth. There's a first pitch bunt that is perfectly down the first base line. Smith fields it with his glove and tries to flip it with the glove to McLaughlin at first. This is close. They will have to review it. It will depend on which camera they use to make the decision because one replay looks like a safe runner and the other appears to show an obvious out.
They call it an out and Smith gets another out on a single pitch. That puts him at 73 pitches so far.
Vogel, who hit the home run in the first, got called for a strikeout on the check swing. It didn't look like he went, but the appeal said he did, so that's a dozen for Smith.
Mercer then grounds out to Aloy at short and that's another 1-2-3 inning. I will be surprised is Smith comes back in the seventh. He's at 81 pitches, so it's hard to imagine they will push it.
Arkansas 3, Murray St. 1
Bottom 6th:
Aloy with a weak pop-up to right field to lead off the inning. Polk then takes three swings and isn't close on any. Jones strikes out swinging and other than the one inning, the Razorbacks haven't been able to handle Vernon today.
Arkansas 3, Murray St. 1
Top 7th:
Looks like Koty Frank will come on for the Hogs. He's in good form. He strikes out Hogart on three pitches. Then he locks up Garner looking at strike three for a second out. He throws seven straight strikes before throwing a ball and then hits Hawthorne barely on the elbow to send him to first.
That brings the tying run to the plate. Frank gets Howell swinging at a 2-2 pitch on the outer part of the plate and that's 15 strikeouts by Razorback pitchers. It must be a little boring for these fielders. These are the type of games where an actual hit catches a guy off guard because he's been lulled to sleep. Those can cause problems.
Arkansas 3, Murray St. 1
Bottom 7th:
Vernon comes out again and gets Holt and Wilmsmeyer to each ground out on a total of four pitches. This is what has gotten Arkansas in trouble all season. They don't shrink the strike zone. They don't show patience. They just swing away and don't get hits. They keep hoping for home runs that just aren't coming this year. At least not right now. If they don't adjust and show more patience, they can give this game away.
White hits a line drive to the warning track in left-center and it's another long out.
In the past four innings, Vernon has faced 13 hitters, just one over the minimum and two of those innings ended on eight pitches.
Arkansas 3, Murray St. 1
Top 8th:
Frank gives up a double to left-center to start the inning. That brings the tying run to the plate again. Then he almost plants the next hitter in the face with a fastball. If Krizen doesn't get his shoulder up high enough, that's exactly what would have happened. He was fortunate to take it off the shoulder blade.
Bland drives one into the dirt at home plate and the Hogs are able to get the force out at third, but, despite the out, that's all we're going to see from Frank. Gaeckle will now come in to try to keep the Racers off the board.
Gaeckle was dominant in relief in Arlington. Van Horn hoping he can replicate that performance to get the Hogs out of here with a win.
White tries to throw a runner out at first and he is really lucky. He ended up hitting the runner with the ball. If that doesn't happen it goes into right field and a run possibly scores.
Vogel keeps fouling off these 95 mph fastballs and at one point he's going to get one to go where he wants it. Gaeckle finally wins it. He strikes out Vogel swinging on an 11-pitch at-bat that saw six foul balls for out No. 2. What a battle between the two of them.
Gaeckle drops a hook right over the plate for strike three. He absolutely froze Mercer. That's 17 strikeouts for Arkansas pitchers and Van Horn had better be grateful because his Razorbacks couldn't hit a beach ball right now.
Arkansas 3, Murray St. 1
Bottom 8th:
Vernon is finally done after keeping Arkansas in check. That will bring on Thomas McNabb, a senior from Conway, to face the Razorbacks. Diggs rips a hard liner right up the middle and that's the first time anyone from the top third of the order has reached base today.
McNabb has Diggs caught on the pick-off move, but when he takes off for second, he not only gets hit by the ball, but he takes an arm to the head and then a cleat to the head that rocks him. He's safe, but really shaken.
Sprague-Lott then singles to right field to give the Hogs runners at the corners.
Mclaughlin hits a grounder at first into what should have been an easy double play or at least a chance to hold Diggs at third with an out, but its misplayed and Diggs scores while the Racers only get one out.
Sprague-Lott then scores on a wild pitch that looked like it hit the batter, but it's just ruled a ball to make it 5-1. Polk then walks during the at-bat.
Jones walks and that will be it for McNabb.
A new pitcher comes on and immediately Van Horn calls for the double steal and everyone is safe. However, Holt strikes out looking and that will end the inning.
Arkansas 5, Murray St. 1
Top 9th:
Gaeckle comes back on to close this out. He walks the lead-off Hogart after working a full count and a couple of guys will start throwing in the pen.
He gets Garner swinging at a breaking pitch that was way outside and in the dirt. White did a good job of digging that one out to keep the runner at first.
Hawthorne hits a grounder to first. McLaughlin gets the out at second and Arkansas is lucky it didn't just lose Gaeckle for the season on that one. He had his ankle turned tendon up in the dead center of the bag as he was falling into the runner's path. If Hawthorne runs through the bag like most players would have, he would have done a lot of damage to Gaeckle and possibly put him out for the season.
Gaeckle gets what should have been a strikeout to end the game. Howell swung at a high pitch that he missed, but it went off White's glove and kicked back to the backstop. Both runners were safe and Murray State has new life.
Tauken also swings at a high pitch, but this time White is able to squeeze it to end the game. The Razorbacks pitching staff finishes with 20 strikeouts on the day.
Arkansas 5, Murray St. 1 [Final]
(Arkansas Communications)
Bottom 9th:
If needed.
Arkansas 5, Murray St. 1