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Home run revival: Hogs build 8-run lead, blow it, build it again | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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Home run revival: Hogs build 8-run lead, blow it, build it again | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette


FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas baseball team needed to build an eight-run lead twice against Southeast Missouri State on Friday.

Once wasn’t enough.

The Razorbacks beat the Redhawks 17-9 at the NCAA Fayetteville Regional before an announced crowd of 11,062 at Baum-Walker Stadium after blowing an 8-0 lead.

“There were a lot of clutch swings by both teams, and very rarely you get out to an eight-run lead and you see it disappear,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “A lot of times that isn’t good for your team.

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“Maybe you get a little demoralized or whatever, but our team hung in there.”

The Razorbacks (44-14) play at 8 p.m. on Saturday against the winner of Friday night’s Louisiana Tech-Kansas State game and Southeast Missouri State (34-26) plays the loser at 2 p.m. in an elimination game.

“I guess I want to talk to whoever said Arkansas couldn’t hit,” Southeast Missouri State Coach Andy Sawyers said in reference to the Razorbacks’ .243 team batting average in SEC games and .268 overall. “That was the narrative kind of coming into it, was one of the best pitching staffs in the country, but had struggled offensively.”

The Razorbacks hit six home runs, including two each by first baseman Ben McLaughlin and catcher Hudson White and one each by shortstop Wehiwa Aloy and right fielder Kendall Diggs.

“I’m just proud of the way we competed at the plate,” said White, who was 2 for 5 with 5 RBI. “We’ve been working hard all season. I felt like we were due for a game like that.”

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McLaughlin, who was 3 for 5 with 6 RBI, said the Razorbacks talked as a group after the Redhawks erased Arkansas’ lead.

“Next man-up mentality,” McLaughlin said. “Trusting the guy behind you, and in front of you, to get the job done.”

“It might not always work out, but just knowing the guys always have your back is huge for us.”

White hit a home run in the first inning off Redhawks starter Haden Dow, then Arkansas scored seven runs in the second inning, including a three-run home run by McLauglin off Collin Wilma.

The 8-0 lead at home, where Arkansas is 34-3 this season, looked huge.

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But Southeast Missouri State fought back, starting with shortstop Ben Palmer’s three-run home run in the third inning against Arkansas starter Mason Molina.

The Redhawks got another three-run home run in the fifth inning — by right fielder Josh Cameron against Will McEntire — to tie the game 8-8 and shock the crowd.

“It got real quiet in there,” Sawyers said.

Southeast Missouri State earned an automatic NCAA Tournament bid by winning the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. Arkansas won the SEC West and is the No. 5 overall national seed and top seed in its regional.

“It’s easy to come into one of these things and you’re the 4 seed and you’re doing the hunting,” Palmer said. “You’re not getting hunted.

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“They’re the 1 seed. Everybody thinks that they should have slapped us. But we went in there and had a good mentality. We got our swing off and we put balls in play. I think we’re a really gritty squad. We wanted to go out there and show everybody what we can do.”

Arkansas regained the lead 10-8 in the fifth inning when Aloy and Diggs hit back-to-back two-out home runs off Wilma and Logan Katen.

“It fired up the dugout a lot,” Van Horn said. “Just to even score one after they had just punched in four to tie it up there in the fifth, and then we end up getting another home run. You’re feeling pretty good. Then they came back.”

The Redhawks cut its deficit to 10-9 in the seventh on back-to-back doubles by Chance Resetich and Bryce Cannon against Gabe Gaeckle, the freshman closer who entered in the sixth.

Gaeckle walked Brooks Kettering with two outs, bringing up Palmer, who has 18 home runs, as the go-ahead run. Gaeckle retired Palmer on foul pop-up to keep Arkansas ahead.

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“I thought we were going to win in the middle of the game,” said Sawyers, who played for Van Horn at Nebraska. “I did. When we made it 8-8, I legitimately thought we were going to win the game, like, without a doubt.”

But Van Horn said he was also confident.

“I was thinking the same thing, we were going to win,” Van Horn said.

Van Horn said he told the players they needed to stay positive.

“I walked up and down the dugout and I said, ‘When the guys get off the field, you guys have got to tell them they’re fine,”https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2024/jun/01/home-run-revival/” Van Horn said. “https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2024/jun/01/home-run-revival/”We still have innings to play and it’s 0-0, 1-1, whatever you want to say. It’s tied. We’ve got a lot of game left.’

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“I thought the dugout did a good job and we were all talking our language in there.”

The Razorbacks finally put the game out of reach with three-run home runs by McLaughlin and White in the seventh and eighth innings.

Gaeckle allowed 1 run, 3 hits and 3 walks in 3 innings with 6 strikeouts before Jake Faherty finished up with a scoreless ninth inning.

It was the Razorbacks’ highest-scoring NCAA Tournament game since a 20-12 win over Oklahoma State at the Stillwater (Okla.) Regional in 2022.

Arkansas’ 16 hits were its second-highest total this season after having 20 in a 21-1 victory over Grambling State.

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Southeast Missouri State had 9 hits and drew 10 walks, including 5 by Kettering. It matched the most walks allowed by the Razorbacks, who also issued 10 in an 8-5 loss to Mississippi State on May 11.

“I certainly thought we competed well and were pretty good offensively,” Sawyers said. “But just didn’t do enough to keep them off the board.”

    Arkansas catcher Hudson White (left) prepares to celebrate with teammates after hitting a three-run home run in the eighth inning of the Razorbacks’ 17-9 victory over Southeast Missouri State on Friday at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)
 
 



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Arkansas wins 53rd cross country conference championship | Whole Hog Sports

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Arkansas wins 53rd cross country conference championship | Whole Hog Sports





Arkansas wins 53rd cross country conference championship | Whole Hog Sports







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Why Ole Miss Should Beat the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday | Locked On Ole Miss Podcast

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Why Ole Miss Should Beat the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday | Locked On Ole Miss Podcast


Today’s Locked On Ole Miss Podcast discusses why Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels will beat the Arkansas Razorbacks in Saturday’s matchup. This will be the next opportunity to play clean football, and I think they will put it together against the Hogs and Sam Pittman and cut down on the penalties that have been allowing teams to stay in the game.

This matchup is absolutely massive for the Rebels because of what it means in the season as a whole, and Taylen Green against the Ole Miss defense will draw everyone’s eye. People look at the Arkansas stats and assume this is a typical Bobby Petrino team, and that isn’t quite right. John Nabors of Locked On Razorbacks said that if Ole Miss goes up by 14, it is over because this team is not a play-from-behind team.

In our final segment of the day, we give our final thoughts on Ole Miss vs. Arkansas and talk about expectations for Saturday and why everything points to an Ole Miss win, but Ole Miss fans before a trip to Fayetteville have seen this movie before.

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Ole Miss Football Reveals Uniform Combination For Road Game vs. Arkansas

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Ole Miss Football Reveals Uniform Combination For Road Game vs. Arkansas


The No. 19 Ole Miss Rebels have a big test on Saturday when they travel to face the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville, and we now know what uniform combination coach Lane Kiffin’s team will feature on the field.

For the first time in two years, the Rebels will not be wearing a different uniform combination in each of its regular season games. Ole Miss is reusing the uniform it wore earlier in the year at South Carolina, opting to don powder blue helmets, white jerseys with powder blue accents and white pants.

You can view the uniform reveal below, complete with modeling from edge rusher Princely Umanmielen.

Since this is the first year the Rebels have ever used this jersey, they are technically undefeated all-time in this uniform combination after knocking off South Carolina 27-3 in Columbia earlier this year. They hope that good luck follows them to Fayetteville this weekend, a place they have not won since 2008.

The last time Ole Miss reused a uniform combination during the regular season came in 2021, but the last time they did it in a campaign including the postseason was in 2022 when they repeated a uniform in the Texas Bowl against Texas Tech. Assuming this is the Rebels’ only road jersey in this year’s rotation, we should also see a repeat when Ole Miss travels to face Florida later in November.

Kickoff on Saturday between Ole Miss and Arkansas is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT, and the game will be televised on ESPN.





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