Steered by numerous standout performances, the No. 1 University of Arkansas baseball team outlasted No. 6 Georgia 13-3 on Friday night in Athens, Ga.
After the first 10 Razorbacks were unable to reach base, Arkansas ran away to win by scoring 13 unanswered runs.
The win marked Coach Dave Van Horn’s 1,500th in his head coaching career across all college levels.
“That means I’ve been in a lot of games,” Van Horn quipped. “Proud of it, proud of all the guys that have played for me and all the coaches. And, you know, it’s a number, but I appreciate it. But really, to me tonight, the win here at Arkansas was huge. Us getting a road win on a Friday again.”
The late-game onslaught started with an improbable catalyst. Freshman Gabe Fraser — who was only 1 for 1 at the plate in SEC games this season — was plugged in at second base in the fifth inning for Nolan Souza, who suffered an injury when sliding head-first into third base on an aggressive baserunning decision in the top half of the inning.
Van Horn said Souza hurt himself “pretty bad,” and will be out the rest of the week — “maybe a lot longer than that.”
Fraser, who has played some second base this season, didn’t get his first at-bat Friday until the seventh inning and launched an RBI-triple into the alley at Georgia’s Foley Field. Fraser’s first extra-base hit in conference play provided Arkansas a 4-3 lead.
“When my name is called, I’ve done the work throughout the week to prepare for it, and from there, it’s kind of just be who I am,” Fraser said, who flipped out in a celebration after the hit. “I mean, I just get excited. I like to get the guys going. It’s a good, fun atmosphere in the clubhouse.”
The game being locked in a 3-3 stalemate for the middle innings was only made possible by pitchers Zach Root and Aiden Jimenez for Arkansas (32-3, 12-1 SEC). Root, the left-handed starter, gave up three runs in the second inning. Georgia’s Kolby Branch, who hit two home runs in the same inning of the Bulldogs’ win over Presbyterian on April 8, hit a two-run home run off Root straightaway center in the second.
Root regrouped and retired the next seven batters. When the Bulldogs threatened with two runners in scoring position in the fifth –— the same inning Souza went down — Root was resilient and struck out the second and third hitters in the Georgia lineup. He roared off the mound while flailing his arm to celebrate getting out of the jam. Another was on the way, though. He exited with two runners on and two outs in the sixth inning.
Jimenez (4-0), Arkansas’ premium reliever, walked the first batter he faced to load the bases, but got Branch out to preserve Root’s final line. Root worked 5 2/3 innings, walked 3, gave up 3 runs on 5 hits and struck out 7. Jimenez stayed in for another two innings after to earn the win and threw only 31 pitches, making him possibly available for Sunday.
Jimenez’s earned-run average — now 1.14 — plunged 28 points.
“Adrenaline was definitely pumping once I got in there,” Jimenez said. “But yeah, I mean, I think it’s just pitching with confidence. I think my stuffs good enough, so I was fine throwing kind of a chase pitch there, see if he would swing at it, because I knew I had an open base and I could work with that next guy.”
Arkansas exploited blunders by the Bulldogs as fast as they opened with the 3-0 lead. Georgia starter Brian Curley retired the first 10 batters he faced. But the right-hander’s breaking ball didn’t cut to the 11th batter, Wehiwa Aloy, and hit him. Two hits dented the lead to 3-2. Then Branch’s throwing error at shortstop counteracted the previous home run.
It awarded an Arkansas runner second base for free. Kuhio Aloy’s single tied the game at 3-3. Logan Maxwell and Brent Iredale played key roles in piecing together the initial fight. But the Aloy brothers continued to wreak havoc. In the eighth inning, with Arkansas still up 4-3, Wehiwa Aloy smashed his 12th home run, a solo shot, to tie for the team lead.
The brothers totaled five hits and scored six runs. Georgia (30-6, 8-5) finished 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position.
Before the Aloy brothers could tally the last five of their six RBI in the eighth and ninth innings, Fraser got the clutch hit.
“When he gets in there and he hits a big hit like that, it gets everybody fired up,” Jimenez said.
Arkansas will try for its fifth straight SEC series win in the SEC in Game 2 of the series starting at 3 p.m. Central on Saturday.
