After an amazing start to Southeastern Conference play, No. 2 Texas A&M softball drops three in a row, ultimately losing the series this weekend against No. 9 Arkansas. The Aggies dropped game two of the series, 7-4.

The Aggies were able to strike first after graduate Mac Barbara sent one deep over the right field fence with two outs, scoring both her and junior Kennedy Powell who reached on a fielding error.

A quick 2-0 lead was what the Aggies needed in order to take care of this Razorback team, but it only lasted so long.

Senior right-handed pitcher Emily Leavitt had a great game for the Aggies, recording a 1-2-3 second and third inning before the Razorback’s bats started to light up. The top of the fourth was able to tie the game up with a leadoff home run from senior Bri Ellis, before two back-to-back hits put two Hogs on with no outs.

Another single from senior Courtney Day plated another run for the Razorbacks, making it a whole new ballgame at 2-2. Freshman RHP Sydney Lessentine entered the game for the Aggies, but wasn’t able to hold the lead as Arkansas plated three insurance runs in the fifth.

Two errors from the Aggies were enough to send three Razorbacks across the plate, putting the visitors up 5-2 late in the game. Another home run from Ellis secured the lead for Arkansas, recording two RBIs and her second home run of the day.

The Aggies were able to score two runs with two outs, by two Aggies getting walked in, for easy unearned runs. The Aggies were only able to record five hits compared to the Razorbacks eleven, making it a tough way to win a ballgame.

A&M drops only its second SEC series and second at home, playing the series finale Sunday at 12 p.m. to conclude senior weekend.

The Encyclopedia of Arkansas’s latest entry — on Pallbearer, the Little Rock doom metal band — marks a significant milestone: 8,000 published articles.

A project of the Central Arkansas Library System, the encyclopedia is a rich repository of information about the state’s history, art, culture, geography, economics, folklore and much more. Easily accessible and constantly updated, it is an invaluable educational resource. It’s like an Arkansas-specific Wikipedia but with more built-in features and ways to explore its pages. We here at the Arkansas Times crib from it often. 

More entries are already on the way. Guy Lancaster, editor of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas and an eclectic content contributor to the Arkansas Times, said there are “another 20-plus that we’ll be uploading next week.

“Last year, we uploaded 413 entries. So at this pace, entry 9,000 isn’t that far off,” Lancaster said in an email. “Thanks to everyone who keeps writing, reviewing, donating, and encouraging!”

The encyclopedia, a project of CALS’ Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, first went live in 2006, with 700 entries. In the nearly two decades since then, it has grown more than 12 times its original size and added features like quizzes and the county explorer. 

Martin Parets of Atlanta is responsible for the 8,000th article, in which he described Pallbearer as a “source of pride for Arkansas’s music scene alongside bands such as Rwake and Terminal Nation.” 

We agree. With five albums under their belt and write-ups in publications like The New York Times and Forbes (and the Arkansas Times), Pallbearer is a most worthy subject for the 8,000th article.

(Speaking of, Pallbearer has a gig coming up on June 7 at the Mutants of the Monster fest in North Little Rock.)