FAYETTEVILLE — A historic start to the Arkansas baseball season is now facing its first meaningful adversity.

The No. 2 Razorbacks (34-7, 13-5 SEC) dropped two of three games this weekend to Texas A&M as the Aggies (23-16, 8-10) handed Arkansas a second straight series loss. It’s also the first time since 2022 the Hogs have lost a weekend series at home.

Arkansas now sits three losses behind No. 1 Texas in the SEC standings, and there’s no respite in future weeks with upcoming series against the Longhorns, LSU and defending national champion Tennessee.

Here are three observations from the Hogs’ series loss to Texas A&M.

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Not enough production from bottom of Arkansas baseball’s lineup

Justin Thomas Jr. had a nice series from the 9-hole with two home runs and four hits, but he was the lone Hog near the end of the order to play well against the Aggies.

The 5-8 hitters in the Arkansas lineup combined to go 6-for-44 across the three games. Players like Cam Kozeal and Ryder Helfrick cooled off, and the Razorbacks got nothing from their right side of the infield. They miss Nolan Souza, who is likely out for the season with a shoulder injury.

“It’s just been a little bit of here-and-there. We just need to get a few more guys rolling and we can put up some bigger innings,” Van Horn said.

The two bright spots for the offense were Wehiwa Aloy and Charles Davalan. Aloy was a dominant force at the plate this weekend, going 7-for-14 with two homers, five runs and four RBIs. He hit a 448-foot bomb to left field in game two that had an exit velocity of 113 mph.

Aloy now has 16 home runs on the season, which lead the Razorbacks and are two more than he hit all of last year. Davalan was 6-for-14 with four runs, and he got unlucky with multiple hard-hit balls going right at Texas A&M defenders.

Bullpen hits first speed pump

Arkansas and Texas A&M were tied 1-1 entering the fifth inning of a decisive rubber match Saturday night. With starting pitcher Landon Beidelschies on five days rest and a pitch count, Van Horn pulled the lefty and went to his bullpen ace, Aiden Jimenez.

A supposed advantage for Arkansas ended up swinging the series toward the Aggies. Jimenez allowed a two-run homer to Jace LaViolette, his fourth of the series, and the Arkansas relievers yielded eight runs across the final five innings. Freshmen Cole Gibler and Carson Wiggins struggled after a brief weather delay.

On the other side, Texas A&M won the series because of the efforts of two relievers. Weston Moss and Luke Jackson didn’t give up a run in 8⅔ scoreless innings during games one and three.

“They pitched better than us,” Van Horn said. “That’s why they won two out of three.”

Is Gabe Gaeckle back?

Gabe Gaeckle lost his spot in the starting rotation this weekend to Gage Wood, but Wood only recorded one out and allowed three earned runs in his return from a shoulder injury during game two.

Gaeckle came out of the bullpen later in the game and seemingly rediscovered his electric form from last season when he was the Hogs’ closer. Gaeckle pitched the final 5⅔ innings of a series-evening 11-5 victory. He struck out eight batters and gave up one run in his arguably his best performance of the season.

Arkansas needed that type of outing after its first two starters — Wood and Zach Root — combined to allow nine runs. Root only lasted four innings Thursday night.

Up Next

Arkansas hosts Little Rock for a two-game series in midweek action beginning Monday before hitting the road next weekend to face Florida.

Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at jfuller@gannett.com or follow him @jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

The No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks (37-6, 13-4 SEC) evened up the series against the Texas A&M Aggies (22-16, 7-10 SEC) with an 11-5 win in Game 2 on Friday afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville.

Arkansas scored eight unanswered runs across the third, fourth and fifth innings to take a commanding lead that it didn’t relinquish in what was the first half of a doubleheader Friday. The brother duo of Wehiwa Aloy and Kuhio Aloy was on fire, as the former finished 3-for-5 at the plate with a home run and three runs scored, while the latter added three hits of his own.

Nine-hole hitter Justin Thomas Jr. added two home runs in the game, while Brent Iredale busted out of his slump with a clutch double and three runs batted in, as well. The Razorbacks tallied 12 total hits in the game compared to the Aggies nine, and the Hogs had seven hits with runners on base.

Back for his first start since Feb. 23, right-handed pitcher Gage Wood was met with a dangerous Texas A&M lineup that didn’t take it easy on him. Wood only managed to retire one Aggie on a strikeout, and allowed three earned runs on three hits with a walk and a wild pitch on 20 pitches before exiting the game.

Luckily for Wood, the relief duo of Ben Bybee and Gabe Gaeckle combined for 8.2 innings of two-run ball with 12 combined strikeouts. Gaeckle, who was replaced by Wood in the starting rotation, went 5.2 innings with eight punchouts to his name to close the game down and earn the win.

In his first start since early in the season, Wood wasn’t exactly excellent. He started things off with a walk before getting tagged with a two-run blast to make it 2-0, Aggies. After a strikeout, he allowed a double and a single, which forced Arkansas to make a pitching change to righty Ben Bybee. Bybee got the Hogs out of the jam, but they were down 3-0.

Arkansas quickly responded in the latter-half of the frame, as Charles Davalan doubled and Wehiwa Aloy singled to lead things off. The Hogs earned their first run via a Carson Boles sacrifice fly out, then Kuhio Aloy singled and Rocco Peppi got plunked with a pitch to load the bases with one out. Brent Iredale drove another run across with a sac-fly but Ryder Helfrick ended the inning with a strikeout and Arkansas down 3-2.

Bybee worked his way through two Aggies quickly to begin the second, but surrendered a solo homer to make it 4-2, Texas A&M.

After a 1-2-3 top of the third for the Hogs’ bats that included two strikeouts, Bybee fended off the Aggies with two punchouts of his own in a hitless frame.

The red-hot Wehiwa Aloy sent a ball 448 feet to left field to open the bottom of the third, which made it 4-3 Aggies at the time. Kuhio Aloy also reached base with a single, but the Hogs couldn’t muster any other runs against the Aggies.

The top of the fourth was the last inning for Bybee, who drew a flyout before letting an Aggie reach with a single. Arkansas changed to righty Gabe Gaeckle out of the bullpen, and he got hit with a single to begin his day. He bounced back with a groundout, then picked the runner off at third base, who was almost half-way up the line for some reason.

Arkansas needed its offense to pick up the pace in a big way in the bottom of the fourth, but back-to-back groundouts didn’t give hope for that reality. Fortunately for the Hogs, Justin Thomas Jr. smacked a homer over the left field wall to tie the game up, 4-4.

Gaeckle returned to the mound in the top of the fifth, and drew a groundout for out No. 1. He then worked the count full before walking a batter, then got tagged with an 0-2 single to give the Aggies life. Gaeckle avoided danger with a strikeout and groundout.

Like he’s been all series, Wehiwa Aloy was clutch again with a leadoff single in the bottom of the fifth. Boles followed that with a single before Kuhio Aloy drove in the lead-taking run with a single of his own.

The fun didn’t stop there, as after a pitching change to righty Brad Rudis, Maxwell got plunked with a pitch to load the bases with no outs. The struggling Iredale came to the plate and doubled to left field to increase Arkansas’ lead to 7-4. The Hogs were down to the final out of the frame after a Cam Kozeal RBI groundout, but Thomas sent his second bomb of the day to left center to hand Arkansas a 10-4 advantage.

Gaeckle was excellent in the top of the sixth, with two strikeouts and a popup. The Razorbacks went down in order in the bottom half thanks to a Kuhio Aloy double play, which wiped Boles (walk) off the base paths.

After a scoreless seventh inning from both teams, the Aggies cut the Hogs’ lead to 10-5 on a leadoff solo homer from Blake Binderup in the top of the eighth. Gaeckle retired the next three in a row, including the last two on six straight strike, to limit the damage. The Hogs plated an insurance run via an RBI groundout from Wehiwa Aloy in the bottom of the eighth.

The Aggies went away quiet in the top of the ninth despite Gaeckle allowing a one out single, as he finished out his 5.2-inning relief appearance by closing down the game.

Up next, Arkansas and Texas A&M will play the second half of the doubleheader Friday evening at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. It will stream on SEC Network+.

Arkansas baseball head coach Dave Van Horn’s postgame press conference after the 7-4 loss to Texas A&M on Thursday at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. Also included is the press conference with right-handed pitcher Dylan Carter.

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