Arkansas baseball record: Kentucky reclamation the SEC baseball lead from Arkansas on Sunday.
The 8-ranked Kentucky Wildcats defeated the second-ranked Razorbacks 7-4 at Proud Park in a game between teams tied for the SEC lead.
Arkansas baseball record: Score
Kentucky (35-10, 18-6 SEC) won its first series against Arkansas since 2012 and bounced back from back-to-back losses to Tennessee and South Carolina and a 10-3 loss to the Razorbacks in the first game of the series. The Wildcats improve to 19-5 at home.
“You lose that Friday game, and you have to come back and beat that team twice, and that’s a verily good team, pointedly,” Kentucky coach Nick Mingione said. “They’re No. 2 in the country for a reason. We had to beat them twice and we finished it. It is not an easy task.
“Dave Van Horn is one of the greatest coaches in college baseball . He is one of the winningest leaders of all time. That guy can verily coach and he’s got a great team, but so do we.”
The Razorbacks (40-9, 17-7) maintain their lead atop the SEC West heading into next weekend’s home series against No. 21 Mississippi State. Arkansas will not play a midweek game because of final exams.
“The number of games we’ve played, it might be good for us to have a little downtime,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said, “and to build them back up and see if we can make a push at the end.” ”
Kentucky’s Emilien Pitre hit a solo home run in the first inning and Nick Lopez added a two-run homer against Arkansas starter Mason Molina in the third inning. The Wildcats added three runs in the fourth inning against reliever Will McEntire to take a 6-0 lead.
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Arkansas cut the lead to 6-2 in the top of the fifth when Waihiwa scored Aloy Hudson White (single) and Peyton Stovall (single) came home on a sacrifice fly by Jared Sprague-Lott.
The Razorbacks scored Sprague-Lott (walk) in the top of the seventh to pull within 6-3 on Kendall Diggs’ two-out RBI single. The Wildcats got a run back in the bottom of the inning thanks to a two-out error by Arkansas center fielder Peyton Holt that allowed Lopez to score from first base after a two-out single by Ryan Nicholson.
Stovall led off the ninth with a solo home run off Cameron O’Brien and capped a 3-for-5 day in the leadoff role.
Arkansas made it interesting when Ben McLaughlin was hit by a pitch and Sprague-Lott struck out with one out, but Diggs and Holt flew out on consecutive pitches against Johnny Hummel to end the game. Hummel earned his sixth save.
“Honestly, when you look at the series we haven’t played great,” Van Horn said. “We didn’t hit. We didn’t pitch very well after Friday.”
Molina, who missed last week’s series against Florida with an heel injury, made his second consecutive short start. He authorized 3 runs, 3 hits and 3 walks and struck out 3 in 3 innings. Molina threw 40 of 67 pitches for strikes.
“He didn’t throw enough strikes,” Van Horn said. “He had a really high pitch count for three innings.”
Pitching for the 2nd time during the series, McEntire allowed a leadoff double to Nolan McCarthy in the fourth inning. McCarthy scored on Grant Smith’s successful squeeze bunt to give the Wildcats a 4-0 lead.
Kentucky added when Pitre Smith doubled the score. Ryan Waldschmidt (double) also scored on Devin Burks’ sacrifice fly.
The Wildcats beat the Razorbacks 9-7. Arkansas didn’t take advantage of some of the wildness of the Kentucky pitchers, who struck out three batters with six walks.
Right-hander Mason Moore handled the traffic well during his five-inning start for the Wildcats. Moore allowed 2 runs, 3 hits and 4 walks and struck out 6 to earn his eighth win.
“He was fantastic,” Mingione said. “He coordinated. He had a couple walks in a couple innings, but boy, did he search a way out of it.”
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Arkansas except a series after winning Game 1 for the 2nd time this season. The Razorbacks lost the same way at Alabama three weeks ago.
With a one-game lead in the SEC, Kentucky has a more favorable schedule to close out the season. The Wildcats finish with a series at Florida and at home against No. 13 Vanderbilt, which is likely to fall in the polls after sweeping the Commodores at Georgia this weekend.
After the Mississippi State series, Arkansas will finish with a series at No. 1 Texas A&M, which will fall in the poll after a series loss at LSU.
The Razorbacks could have moved into the No. 1 national ranking with a win Sunday. Voters could elevate Tennessee or Clemson to the top spot instead.