Live Blog: Arkansas vs. Oklahoma State
ARLNGTON, Texas – Welcome to Arlington and the home of the MLB world champion Texas Rangers where the Arkansas Razorbacks get set to open the Kubota College Baseball Series with the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
OSU lost its first two games to start the season against Sam Houston, but have bounced back well since. Roc Riggio has moved on to the New York Yankees farm system and a few other Cowboys are also gone via draft, but this is still a line-up that can put up runs. Meanwhile, Arkansas took down No. 4 Oregon State, 5-4, last night in a game for the ages.
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.
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Starting line-up:
Top 1st:
The Razorbacks will bat first tonight as Diggs readies for the first pitch of the night. Bryian Holiday will start on the mound for Oklahoma St. Very small crowd for the Cowboys. Razorbacks fans have filled up three full decks and starting on a fourth along the third base line. The two decks in the outfield are beginning to fill quite a bit also.
Holiday gets Diggs to chase high heat just above the letters and the Hogs start with a strikeout. Meanwhile, White manages to lay off the high heat and Arkansas has its first runner of the game via walk.
McLaughlin jams one down into the dirt in front of home plate that slow bounces to first. However, Brueggemann anticipates a bigger hop when he gets to it and it skips past him under his glove to give the Hogs runners at first and second with one out.
Aloy takes a big cut at a change-up and he was way out in front of it for Holiday's second strikeout of the game. Helfrick then pops up to shallow center and we'll head to the bottom of the first scoreless.
Arkansas 0, OSU 0
Bottom 1st:
Zach Ehrhard, who has give the Hogs fits the last two years, starts off with a hard hit down the third baseline. Diving stop by Sprague-Lott, but the throw to first is wide and Oklahoma State has a runner on.
Tygart's pitch bounces out of the glove of Helfrick behind the plate and rolls to the backstop. Erhard moves over to second on the passed ball and becomes an immediate scoring threat. Tygart then misses outside to Benge and the first two hitters of the night are on at first and second with no outs.
Tygart blows a nasty breaking ball that dover out of the zone on the outer part of the plate to set Wulfert down swinging. Then he gets the clean-up hitter Brueggemann to hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. Tygart throws 12 pitches in that inning.
Arkansas 0, OSU 0
Top 2nd:
Jones gets behind on a hard fastball right over the middle of the plate and Holiday has his third strikeout of the game. The energy in the building definitely feels different than last night. There are a ton of Razorback fans here, but they feel very disinterested. The best I can describe it is polite energy. Almost golf-like.
Holt pops up, so there are now two away. Sprague-Lott stays patient on a full count to draw the walk. Then Wilmsmeyer hits a hard liner to center, but Ehrhard was playing up so he was able to make the grab to end the inning.
Arkansas 0, OSU 0
Bottom 2nd:
Schubart bounces the first pitch he sees back to Tygart for the first out of the inning. Tygart is looking much more comfortable on the mound tonight. He blows a fastball past Meola on the outer half of the plate for the strikeout.
LaSalle hits a hard grounder between second and third. Aloy is over and snags it on the edge of the outfield, takes a big hop and tries to make the throw to first, but it's not in time. That's the first hit Tygart has given up tonight.
Daugherty then gets out in front of a change-up that he punches out to left center. This is trouble. Jones is on his horse. He loops around to charge the ball as Daugherty breaks for second. If he's off a run possibly scores. It's a perfect strike. Tag is down. Daughterty is out at second and the inning is over. What a great play. Perfect approach. Perfect throw. Perfect tag. The Hogs are out of the jam and we head to the third still scoreless.
Arkansas 0, OSU 0
Top 3rd:
Diggs starts off with a grounder to second. The Hogs are getting the bat on the ball, but almost nothing is solid tonight.
White turns on a pitch for a grounder to third. Wulfert comes up with it, but throws it away. White rounds first and he is into second on the E-5. Wulfert had plenty of time to make that throw. White was several steps short of the bag when the ball arrived. He just rushed it.
Aloy pops up and the inning is over. Arkansas had a chance, but just couldn't drive in the run.
Arkansas 0, OSU 0
Bottom 3rd:
Tygart gets Forsythe to pop up to first and he is now set to face this rotation a second time.
Ehrhard hits a soft liner just barely over second base and the Cowboys have a runner on first. Correction. HAD a runner on first. Tygart with the quick flip while Ehrhard was making his way off the bag and catches him off guard for the pick.
Then a high chopper is bare-handed by Sprague-Lott and he fires a throw over to first and it appears the inning is over. Now the umpres hae stopped Arkansas from leaving the field as the team gathers by third base and is watching the screens hoping for a replay. We just saw it here and this is going to be close. If he's out, it's by the tiniest fraction of a second.
It's official. They call him out and we'll head to the fourth scoreless.
Arkansas 0, OSU 0
Top 4th:
Helfrick pops up a difficult one in right, but Meola comes over to make the grab. Then Jones gives one a ride to the warning track in left-center that gets run down also, so there two quick outs for the Hogs here in the fourth.
Holt hits a hard liner to left-center that gets run down also and it's three up, three down. The good news is Arkansas is starting to hit Holiday a little bit.
Arkansas 0, OSU 0
Bottom 4th:
Tygart gets Wulfert to pop up and strikes out Brueggemann to start things off. He's looking comfortable and his pitch count is in the 40s right now. He adds one more K to his list and we're through four scoreless once more.
Arkansas 0, OSU 0
Top 5th:
Sprague-Lott leads off with a hard line drive deep to left-center and that one hops the wall in front of the Lockheed martin sign. He's in with a double and the Razorbacks are in business. Wilmsmeyer then drops a perfect sacrifice bunt and the Hogs have Sprague-Lott in scoring position.
And Sprague-Lott's gonna score. Diggs with a line drive into right field to bring him in and for the first time tonight there's a little juice in this Razorbacks crowd as Arkansas goes up 1-0.
White grounds out to third to move Diggs over, but McLaughlin strikes out swinging at a high one and the inning is over, but not before the Hogs manage to get on the board.
Arkansas 1, OSU 0
Bottom 5th:
Tygart gets LaSalle swinging at a full count pitch to start off the inning. He then jams Daughtery on a full count for an easy floater to first. The very next pitch is an easy fly ball to right for the out and Tygart is through five in 67 pitches. Based on how Van Horn handled Smith last night, Tygart's got one more inning before he's going to have to hand this thing off. He currently has five strikeouts.
Arkansas 1, OSU 0
Top 6th:
Aloy goes down chasing a high fastball to start the inning. Helfrick then hits into what looks like a routine grounder at third, but the throw appears to have pulled the first baseman off the bag. It's going to be close. It's hard to tell on the replay we have here in the press box.
They rule Helfrick out, so there are now two away. And Oklahoma State just got away with a pitch clock violation. Not only that, but it was a called strike. What a miss by the umpire. His pitch was a full two seconds after the clock went to zero. Instead, Jones pops out to the infield and the inning is over. That's going to have some Arkansas fans hot.
Arkansas 1, OSU 0
Bottom 6th:
Tygart has thrown three pitches and has two outs here in the sixth. He got Ehrhard to fly out to right on the first pitch and Benge to ground out to Aloy at short on two pitches.
Wulfert is hit by a pitch and goes to first, but something has the OSU skipper really upset. He's been out arguing with the umpires for multiple minutes right now. It appears to be over a timeout call and the Arkansas fans are letting him have it on the delay. Then, after what is a good three or four minute delay, Tygart strikes out Brueggemann and the Cowboys' manager is out on the field talking to the umps between innings now.
Arkansas 1, OSU 0
Top 7th:
And that will do it for Holiday. Weber comes on to pitch for the Cowboys. Holiday struck out six on 83 pitches, giving up only a pair of hits.
Holt deposits the first pitch he sees into left for a single. Then Sprague-Lott moves him to second on a fielder's choice grounder to short to put Holt in scoring position with one out.
That doesn't last long as Weber now gives way to after one out. Davis comes in and goes 3-0 to Wilmsmeyer, battles back to a full count, and then gives up the walk to put runners on first and second for Diggs.
Tonight's attendance is officially 16,271 and that's almost all Razorbacks fans.
Diggs pops up to shallow left, so the runners are unable to advance to eliminate the force with two outs.
Arkansas 1, OSU 0
Bottom 7th:
There will be no Tygart in the 7th. Koty Frank comes out sporting a magnificent mustache and the back of his mullet already worked up to a sweaty lather, so he's plenty warm and ready to go. And right away he records a strikeout as he sends Schubart packing on four pitches.
He then benches Meola on a half-hearted swinging and Frank already has these OSU hitters guessing. Now LaSalle goes down swinging and what a showing from Frank. He is what was missing from the middle of this rotation last season after he got hurt. It's good to see him back this year and pitching as good, if not better than last year after such a devastating injury.
Arkansas 1, OSU 0
Top 8th:
McLaughlin turns on one and looks like's he's taking that final swing of an axe before the tree comes down. This one is hit hard to the gap in right center and he's on with a single. That will wake up this sleepy crowd a little bit.
Aloy hits a hard line to right that is slicing toward the foul line that shouldn't have been caught, but Benge really got on his horse to run that one down. The Hogs are lucky they didn't get doubled up on that one as McLaughlin was sure he was going to at least be at second.
Helfrick strikes out swinging on a 2-2 and the Hogs are down to their final out. They can't keep wasting the few hits they're getting in a game this close. At some point, they have to put a few together.
Jones pops up to the infield and that will do it. We head to the bottom of the 8th with the Hogs clinging to a 1-run lead.
Arkansas 1, OSU 0
Bottom 8th:
Frank is channeling his inner Hagan Smith. He gets Daughtery swinging on three pitches. Then he gets Forsythe on a nasty 2-2 pitch to put the Hogs an out away from getting out of this inning with a lead.
He then walks Erhard on four straight pitches, although he was keeping it around the plate as he pitched around a dangerous hitter. And it looks like that will be it for Frank. Van Horn has seen enough. He struck out the first five batters he saw, but after a single walk, the Razorbacks call on Stone Hewlett to finish the eighth.
The moves pays off. Hewlett gets Benge on three pitches, capped off with a nasty breaking ball low and away.
Arkansas 1, OSU 0
Top 9th:
Now we have fans doing their best Eric Musselman in the stands as the shirts are coming off between innings. Perhaps that was a bit of bad mojo because Holt grounds out to short on the first pitch he sees.
Sprague-Lott struck out on a 2-2 pitch before Wilmsmeyer provided a ray of hope with a hard hit ball up the middle that had just enough smoke to break free of the second baseman's glove and barely dribble into the outfield for a single.
Wilmsmeyer then takes off on the next pitch to steal second easily. Diggs then watches a 2-1 pitch almost take the stitches off his jersey and Wilmsmeyer moves to third on the wild pitch before Diggs eventually draws the walk to put runners at the corner.
White grounds to short for the fielder's choice and the Hogs head to the ninth needing to hold onto the shutout to get the win.
Arkansas 1, OSU 0
Bottom 9th:
Jake Faherety comes in to close it after making things a bit interesting last night. He's really working the right side of the plate in warm-ups. So far he hasn't given up a run in two appearances.
Faherty starts off 3-0 to Wulfert who has yet to get a hit this game. He misses way high on the 3-1 and the tying run is aboard with the potential winning run at the plate.
He gets Bruegemann swinging on what should have been Ball 3 way up in the zone. He got helped with a couple of pitches in that at-bat, but after getting that first out, perhaps he will settle down a little.
He's hitting the gun at 97, but the speed isn't helping. He had a pitch that looked like it should have easily been Strike 2 get called a ball and things went down from there as Schubart walks to put runners on first and second with only one out.
Meola ropes a hard single to center field and if it weren't for the strong arm of Jones, this game would be over. As it is, Crull scores and we're tied with runners at second and third. Now Faherty hits La Salle and the bases are loaded.
Not sure I understand the decisions going on here. Van Horn had a hot Frank and pulled him after he struck out five straight. Then Hewlett comes in and looks sharp to end the 8th, but he gets pulled. Yet, Arkansas sticks with Faherty who has been shaky at best the last two days.
And with Oklahoma State a deep pop fly from ending this, the Hogs finally make a move. Gabe Gaeckle will now come on to try to send this to extra innings.
And right way, Gaeckle strikes out Carter, a Little Rock native who came into the game in relief at catcher earlier this inning, and the Hogs are an out away from bonus baseball.
And Arkansas gets away with one. What was clearly Ball 4 on a pitch that was low and several inches off the plate gets called a strike, which stopped the celebration by Oklahoma State and its fans right in its tracks. Gaeckle then takes advantage of the umpiring error by striking out Forsythe to end the inning and we're headed to the 10th. Cowboys fans are rightfully fuming, but the Razorbacks fans are letting lose and soaking in the good fortune.
Arkansas 1, OSU 1
Top 10th:
McLaughlin strikes out and Aloy grounds out to short. Not a good way to start extra innings. Helfrick strikes out on a half swing at a pitch in the dirt and Arkansas just can't figure out how to hit the ball lately.
Arkansas 1, OSU 1
Bottom 10th:
The Arkansas crowd has lightened up a little bit some try to get a jump on traffic. Joke's on them though because at event at the Dallas Cowboys's Stadium next door just let out, so it's a parking lot on the roads around Globe Life Field. Would have been better to just wait it out.
Gaeckle gets the lead-off to right and gets Benge to strikeout swinging, so very quickly there are two outs with no one on. Graeckle strikes out Ritchie looking and you can feel the momentum swinging in the building.
Arkansas 1, OSU 1
Top 11th:
Holt grounds out to the pitcher. Jones grounds out to third. Both short at-bats, which has happened a lot tonight. Arkansas hitters have not been patient, nor worked counts for most of the night.
Sprague-Lott hits a double down the third base line and there's finally a glimmer of hope that the Razorbacks might be able to squeeze out another run. Wilmsmeyer grounds out to short to end the inning and the Hogs will have to hope we go a dozen if they want the win.
Arkansas 1, OSU 1
Bottom 11th:
Gaeckle strikes out Brueggemann on a high heater and he seems to be getting a little more pep in his step. He then strikes out Avery Ortiz on three pitches and gets Meola to pop up to right to get the Hogs out of the 11th. We're gonna play a dozen whether anyone likes it or not.
Arkansas 1, OSU 1
Top 12th:
Diggs leads off with a hard grounder to second that almost shoots through, but Meola is able to knock it down and make the throw in time for the first out of the inning.
White turns on one. It's headed deep toward the wall in left. And Schubart makes the grab at the wall to get the out. He hit it about 374. He needed 375.
McLaughlin hits a hard grounder to first and he's hauling it down the line. Brueggmann tries to scoop it on the run and flip it to the pitcher with his glove, but instead he boots it and McLaughlin is safe on the error. If that's a different hitter, Brueggmann doesn't feel that sort of pressure and the play is made. McLaughlin is so fast.
Edmundson is in to pinch run and he looks like he's going to be thrown out at second, but the ball kicks into the heel of the glove and pops up and again the Razorbacks catch a break. And we get our first pitch clock violation of the game. The umpire missed one earlier tonight. It's been a tough night behind the plate.
And Aloy goes down swinging on a pitch high and inside to end the inning. It looks like a book has already been formed on him. He really likes to chase that one, can't catch it and teams are going to keep coming with it until the sophomore learns the patience to watch it go by for Ball 4.
Arkansas 1, OSU 1
Bottom 12th:
Gaeckle gives up a lead-off walk to LaSalle on a full count as the Cowboys look like they're willing to be a little more patient than the last two innings and that will be it for Gaeckle. It looks like the freshman Colin Fisher will come on. He is the Hogs' sixth pitcher tonight.
Carter lays down a sac bunt to move the runner to second with one out. I'll say one thing. Fisher is the manliest looking freshman I have ever seen. Thick late 20s looking build with a full 5 o'clock shadow going on. If you put him in a Rangers uniform tonight and had him on the mound, he would look like he belongs.
And he striks out Forsythe swinging for the second out. Now Van Horn calls for an intentional walk of Erhard. It gives a force out at second and third, but it also avoids a dangerous clutch hitter.
Fisher strikes out Benge to end the inning and Benge is hot. He is going at the umpire. If the replay we got here is what they are showing on FloSports, it will look a little outside because of the camera position, but that pitch was over the plate. He's still barking. Now Koty Frank is enthusiastically waving him goodbye as Benge finally begins walking way.
Arkansas 1, OSU 1
Top 13th:
We're about to come up on 3.5 hours, which is really efficient to be in the 13th inning. However, it definitely feels like we've been going back and forth for at least five.
Helfrick starts things off by watching Strike 3 go by on the outside corner of the plate. That will bring up Jones who showed earlier tonight he has the power to put a run on the board in this park if he gets the right pitch. It didn't leave the yard, but he rode it a long way to the gap.
Finally, a Razorback shows a little patience. Jones holds steady at the plate and draws a full count walk. That brings up Holt who hit the yellow line in center last night right above the 407 marker. He could really wake this crowd up with a single swing. Instead, he just misses and the Razorbacks are down to their final out this inning.
Sprague-Lott rips a hard hit up the middle that gets into center field. Unfortunately, it didn't get deep enough to move the runner to third. However, that wild pitch just did. Arkansas has runners at second and third with two outs.
Wilmsmeyer rips a hard shot down the line, but Wulfert was playing deep and on the line to get the third out.
Arkansas 1, OSU 1
Bottom 13th:
Fisher is back out and he makes short work of the pinch hitter Proctor as he went down looking. He then gets Brueggemann looking also and these hitters are coming away with the same puzzled looks they had when Franks was mowing people down back in regulation.
Fisher smokes one right down the pipe to get the final out and Hewlett is throwing an imaginary flag in the dugout on such nastiness. The freshman is absolutely rocking and firing. The ball has great, subtle movement on it and the Cowboys have no idea what they're looking at.
That's 24 strikeouts tonight. That's another program record set here in Arlington by this pitching staff.
Arkansas 1, OSU 1
Top 14th:
Diggs leads off with a grounder up the middle for a single and for the first time in what feels like forever, Arkansas has a runner on with no outs instead of two.
White hits a grounder up the middle deep in the infield. He got just enough on that one to avoid the double play and almost beat out the throw for a base hit. Instead, there's one away with a runner on second for Jack Wagner who is pinch hitting for McLaughlin.
After fouling a few pitches off, Wagner goes down looking at a pitch on the outer part of the plate, so the Hogs are down to their final out with Aloy up to bat. And once again they have him chasing high. If they ever miss at the belt, he's got a chance.
Aloy grounds out and we are headed to our second 7th inning stretch of the night.
Arkansas 1, OSU 1
Bottom 14th:
Fisher drops a breaking pitch on the outside corner of the plate to record his sixth strikeout. He is the third Arkansas pitcher to do so tonight and if Frank hadn't gotten short leashed at five, there would have been four.
LaSalle singles up the middle and he now has two of the Cowboys' five hits. There's a hard hit down the line that gets under Sprague-Lott's glove and into the outfield. The error puts runners at second and third with only one out. And for the second time tonight, it feels like this game might finally end, albeit not how Arkansas fans might like.
It was the Little Rock native, Carter who put the bat on the ball to put the Hogs on the brink.
And there's a perfectly placed bunt out of nowhere by Forsythe. Fisher can't get to it in time to make the play at the plate and this one is over. Arkansas drops a heartbreaker to the Cowboys roughly 12 hours before they have to be back at the ballpark to start getting prepared for tomorrow's game.
That was an 0-2 pitch. If he doesn't get it down, he's out.
OSU 2, Arkansas 1