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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

Johnell Davis, Karter Knox find their grooves in Arkansas basketball’s rout over UMES

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Johnell Davis, Karter Knox find their grooves in Arkansas basketball’s rout over UMES


FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas basketball has been waiting throughout the first few weeks of the regular season for breakout performances from Johnell Davis and Karter Knox

Both players came to life for the Razorbacks (5-1) on Monday night, unleashing an offensive onslaught in a 109-35 romp over Maryland Eastern Shore. The 74-point win tied for the third-largest margin of victory in school history.

The usual suspects — Boogie Fland, Adou Thiero and Zvonimir Ivišić — all shined, but it was the emergence of Davis and Knox that powered the best offensive performance of the season. Knox led all scorers with a career-high 21 points, while Davis chipped in 16 to post his highest scoring output since joining the Hogs this offseason.

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“If everybody is good, no one has to be great,” Arkansas assistant coach Chin Coleman said after the win.

“So we have a team that we feel like if everybody is good, we don’t have to have someone go in the phone booth, put on the cape and be Superman. We’ve got a good collective of guys that if everybody is good, no one player has to be great, so we need (Davis and Knox) to be good.”

Knox was a five-star recruit in the 2024 class, viewed as an elite scorer who could get to the basket in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, his jumper has been cold to start his collegiate career, and he entered Monday night 1 of 15 on 3-pointers.

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But against UMES, Knox went 3 of 8 from long range. He made a pair of corner 3s and found time to paint the basket for easy points. After one 3-pointer, he exchanged words with the Arkansas bench, a sign of relief after failing to score more than six points through the first five games.

“It felt good to get going. I’ve been putting the work in the gym,” Knox said. “Teammates kept believing in me. They knew it was going to fall, tonight was the night.”

Davis’ early-season struggles have been puzzling. He averaged 18.2 points on 48% shooting last year at Florida Atlantic, but he hadn’t scored more than eight points since the Hogs’ season-opener. Coleman admitted during a recent press conference that Davis is adjusting to being surrounded by other top options, instead of being a clear-cut leader of the offense.

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With Arkansas, Davis has been more of a stretch-the-floor shooter through the first three weeks. It makes sense, given that Davis shot 41.4% from 3 last season with the Owls, and he finally got hot Monday night by going 4 of 7 against the Hawks.

“We saw him the other day make 40 in-a-row. It was just a matter of time,” Coleman said. “The only thing in between him and making shots is air and opportunity. So he had an opportunity tonight, and he made them.”

The next question is how repeatable were these performances. Maryland Eastern Shore represents arguably the worst opponent on Arkansas’ schedule. Things are about to get much tougher, beginning with a Thanksgiving showdown against Illinois.

In their last matchup against a Power Four school, Davis and Knox combined for eight points on 2 of 12 shooting against Baylor. They could hold the keys to a first signature victory in the John Calipari era this Thursday.



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New statewide group promotes, aids prescribed burns | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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New statewide group promotes, aids prescribed burns | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette


The newly formed Arkansas Prescribed Burn Association held its first meeting in mid-October.

The association works as an umbrella organization, recruiting and maintaining new groups of landowners to conduct prescribed burns throughout the state.

“Properly planned prescribed burns reduce the fuel load, which can lessen or even eliminate wildfires,” said Thomas Baldridge, one of the association’s three directors. “But that’s only part of the benefit of prescribed fire. It’s the best tool available to land managers to increase wildlife habitat for turkeys, quail, deer and all sorts of other species.”

North American bird populations have declined by more than 2.9 billion birds in the last 50 years and the loss of grassland habitat is one of the largest contributors to that loss, according to a recent study conducted by Kenneth Rosenberg and highlighted by the National Audubon Society. Fire helps open up dense underbrush to promote seed-producing grasses and plants that are beneficial to grassland species on a year-round basis.

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Instead of manipulating land through dirt work or planting food plots, many landowners can turn the tide on the loss of wildlife habitat with the proper use of prescribed fire.

Baldridge said the formation of the prescribed burn association was a natural evolution to what the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and other partnering organizations had been studying the last few years.

“Game and Fish started building prescribed burn associations a few years ago. Most of our members have been fortunate to have worked with many of the staff from Game and Fish, Quail Forever and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on burns and other private land habitat projects. The prescribed burn association just sort of seemed to be a missing piece to the puzzle that was already being put together,” Baldridge said.

Hunter Johnson of Des Arc and Catrina Mendoza of Searcy share director duties with Baldridge, who also lives in Searcy.

Baldridge said the association used states like Oklahoma and Florida as templates to follow in their formation.

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“Oklahoma really sets the standard for a statewide prescribed burn association. They’ve grown to a massive organization with a budget over $1 million and eight full-time staff members to support all of their chapters.”

Game and Fish, Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Quail Forever all pitched in financially to help the new association build a firm foundation. Game and Fish granted the organization $25,000. Fish and Wildlife gave it $50,000 and Quail Forever provided $17,000 derived from its specialty license plate sales.

Baldridge says trailers, safety gear and other prescribed burn necessities also were donated to the association, increasing its startup assistance to more than $200,000 in funding and equipment. Since the organization is entirely volunteer-based, all of this funding is put directly into putting prescribed fire on the landscape.

Visit www.arfire.org for more information and to learn how to set up a new prescribed burn association in any area of Arkansas.



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Arkansas' official depth chart for Missouri game

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Arkansas' official depth chart for Missouri game


FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks (6-4, 3-4 SEC) have released the depth chart for Saturday’s regular season finale against the No. 24 Missouri Tigers (8-3, 4-3 SEC) at Razorback Stadium.

Arkansas recovered from a slow start to take down Louisiana Tech, 35-14, over the weekend in Fayetteville. Missouri bounced back from a loss to South Carolina on Sept. 16 with a 39-20 win at Mississippi State on Saturday.

A few changes were made to this week’s depth chart, most notably the absence of junior defensive end Nico Davillier at the defensive end position. The pass-rusher did not play against Louisiana Tech on Saturday due to a knee injury, and senior Anton Juncaj is the lone listed starter in Davillier’s place. Backing up Juncaj is freshman Charlie Collins.

At safety, sophomore TJ Metcalf and junior Miguel Mitchell no longer have an “or” listed between them. Metcalf is the starter with Mitchell backing him up. Finally, redshirt sophomore Brooks Edmonson is listed as the backup center behind Addison Nichols instead of redshirt sophomore Amaury Wiggins, who is no longer listed on the depth chart.

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Here is the full Arkansas depth chart ahead of Saturday’s game against Missouri, which is set to kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network at Memorial Stadium.



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