FAYETTEVILLE — Brady Tygart and Will McEntire combined on a one-hit shutout and the No. 1 Razorbacks pulled off a rare home-run feat for the second year in a row to subdue Missouri 6-0 on Saturday.
Arkansas (16-2, 2-0 SEC) remained undefeated through 11 games on its homestand while winning its 12th consecutive game before an announced crowd of 10,434 on a sunny spring afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium. The Hogs will go for a perfect home stand and a sweep of the Tigers (9-10, 0-2 SEC) at 2 p.m. today.
Arkansas posted consecutive shutouts of an SEC opponent in nine-inning games for the first time since the 2007 SEC Tournament against South Carolina (6-0) and Alabama (6-0).
The last time the Razorbacks logged back-to-back shutouts in league play in the same series came in 1978, when they blanked Rice in three straight games, 6-0, 1-0 and 6-0 in Southwest Conference play.
“It’s hard to shut them out once, much less twice,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “Back-to-back is something else. I’m sure we’re going to get their best shot tomorrow.
“Very rarely do you get a chance to win three in a row against the same team and we have that opportunity tomorrow and I hope we come out play well.”
All the scoring action came in the Razorbacks’ six-run sixth inning, against reliever Bryce Mayer (0-4), which broke up a scoreless pitcher’s duel between the Tygart/McEntire combo and Missouri left-hander Javyn Pimental, who allowed one hit in 5 innings through a season-high 78 pitches.
Peyton Stovall, Wehiwa Aloy and Kendall Diggs hit home runs in consecutive at bats to fire up the home crowd and give McEntire (2-0) all the help he would need.
“It was one of those games where neither team, neither offense is doing much,” said Stovall, who has eight RBI in six games since returning from a broken foot. “I was fortunate enough to put a good swing on the ball and I felt like that got our dugout going.
“Wehiwa had a great swing. He hit one out and, obviously, Diggs. Me and Diggs were actually joking after the game. I’ve felt like since we’ve been here, we’ve hit like four or five that were back-to-back.”
Stovall sent his go-ahead 404-foot shot, his second of the season, off the top of the facade over the right-field wall on a 2-2 pitch. Aloy ripped Mayer’s next offering, an inside breaking ball over the wall in left field for a 396-foot deposit, his third. Diggs got behind early, fouled off a couple of pitches, then rammed an opposite-field shot over the wall in left 372 feet for his team-high fourth home run and his third in as many games.
The Razorbacks were believed to have hit their first back-to-back-to-back shots in school history in the seventh inning of a 10-9, 11-inning win over Illinois State last year, when Stovall, Diggs and Caleb Cali did it.
“It’s hard to do,” Van Horn said. “What are the percentages? They’re not very high, that’s for sure, and obviously some things have to go your way.
“You’ve got to have some things really fall into place to hit three in a row. It’s hard to hit back-to-back, honestly. The way it was going today, it was hard for us to get a hit.”
The Razorbacks had one hit through five innings, but they didn’t stop after the home run trio in the sixth. Ben McLaughlin drew a one-out walk, then Jayson Jones was hit by a pitch and Ross Lovich hit a two-run triple off his former team into the gap in left-center field. Lovich completed the uprising by scoring on a wild pitch from Charlie Miller.
“Good hitting teams take advantage when you make mistakes, and they did that,” Missouri Coach Kerrick Jackson. “Unfortunately on the offensive side for us we didn’t.”
The Tigers have no runs on five hits through the first 18 innings of the series, but they had their chances to back Pimental’s great start by putting lots of runners on against Tygart in his final two innings.
Trevor Austin led off the fourth with a single, but he was erased on a hit and run when Jackson Lovich hit a liner right at the shortstop Aloy for an easy double play. After that, Thomas Curry, Jackson Beaman and Justin Colon drew consecutive walks. On a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded, Matt Garica lined sharply up the middle but Aloy was positioned perfectly to leap and make the run-saving grab.
“They made mistakes, and we didn’t take advantage of those,” Jackson said. “We had a little thing going there where Garcia hits that line drive but unfortunately hit it right at the shortstop. That ball’s four inches taller, and we’re talking about a different story there.
“And we have a hit-and-run situation where J-Lo [Lovich] hits a line drive right at the shortstop, runner’s in motion, ball’s a little bit more to the left, a little bit more to the right, talking about a different situation there.”
McEntire made a living off following Tygart starts last season and he did it again, throwing a hitless 4 1/3 innings on 56 pitches to complete the clamp down.
“Last year, when he started making starts and I would relieve him, we’d joke around and just say that we’re just like a 1-2 punch,” McEntire said. “I kind of just go until I’m told that I’m not going any longer. I really enjoy coming out of the pen just cause you don’t really know when you’ll come in so you’ve just got to be in the moment.”
Arkansas’ Ben McLaughlin (right) waits for a throw as Missouri’s Trevor Austin (19) slides safely into first base on a pickoff attempt during the top-ranked Razorbacks’ 6-0 victory over the Tigers on Saturday at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. More photos at nwaonline.com/317mizzouua/. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Charlie Kaijo)
