Razorbacks Get Complete Game from Hunter Hollan for Win
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas got what they needed headed to final series of year with Hunter Hollan's complete game on the mound Sunday afternoon and closed out the SEC series with South Carolina on Sunday afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Hollan threw 113 pitches and 80 of them were strikes. It now sets up the pitching for next week's final regular-season series in Nashville against Vanderbilt on Thursday night before the SEC Tournament starts the following week in Hoover, Ala.
The Razorbacks are now likely in a strong position to host an NCAA Regional and Super Regional the following week. Those decisions will be made after the conference tournament.
You wondered if Hollan would make it to the second inning after a first inning that had problems all over the place. He settled down and made one mistake pitch to throw a complete game, giving up five hits, walking one and striking out 10. That mistake came in the third inning on a solo homer that ended up over the right-field wall.
After nobody came close to a hit in the first with both sides going down in order, Cole Messina led off the top of the second with a line double to right-center field to be the first baserunner and moved to third on a single by Gavin Casas. Hollan somehow got out of that mess with an infield popup to first baseman Brady Slavens and Messina wandered too far down watching the fly and got doubled up.
Hollan gave up a homer to lead off the third inning to Will Tippett over the right field wall. He let two more runners get on base, then worked himself out of another jam, striking out two guys, but South Carolina got on top 1-0.
The Hogs evened things in the bottom of the third when Peyton Holt led off with a single left and scored two batters later on a double by John Bolton for a 1-1 game.
In the fifth, Caleb Cali led off the bottom of the inning with a single to left and moved over on a double by Holt to right field. Parker Rowland scored both of them with a mis-played single to center for a 3-1 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth, Slavens hit a one-out shot down the right-field line for a double, then scored on a two-out single to Cali to right field for a 4-1 lead.
Ben McLaughlin added a homer to right-center field that hit the top of the wall and bounced into the scoreboard for a 5-1 lead.
The Hogs are now 38-13 on the year (19-8 in the SEC).
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