Hogs Overcome Seven-Run Deficit to Defeat Red Raiders
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – No. 2 Arkansas (31-5) rallied from a seven-run deficit to defeat Texas Tech (26-12), 9-8, in Tuesday night’s midweek series opener and extend its Baum-Walker Stadium winning streak to a program-record 24 games.
Tuesday’s win marks Arkansas’ largest comeback win since rallying from a nine-run deficit in a 13-10 victory at Louisiana Tech during the 2017 season. The Hogs trailed, 10-1, before scoring 12 unanswered runs to pull off the improbable win.
Trailing 7-0 entering the bottom of the fourth inning against Texas Tech, Arkansas scored once in the bottom half of the frame before putting together a six-run fifth to tie the game at seven. Peyton Holt’s RBI single and Wehiwa Aloy’s RBI double set the table for Ben McLaughlin’s two-out, two-run homer, cutting the Razorbacks’ deficit to one.
Hudson White, who transferred to Arkansas from Texas Tech this past offseason, tied the game at seven later in the fifth inning with his two-out double, scoring Jack Wagner from second. The Red Raiders would answer with a solo home run against Razorback right-hander Will McEntire to lead off the seventh and go up, 8-7, but Arkansas tied the game again at 8-8 when Peyton Stovall beat out a double play that allowed Ty Wilmsmeyer to score from third base in the eighth.
Gabe Gaeckle, who earned the win to improve to 2-2 on the season, tossed a scoreless top half of the ninth to give the Razorback offense an opportunity to win the ballgame in the bottom of the inning. Arkansas did exactly that, as Texas Tech committed two errors and hit a batter to lead off the ninth, eventually allowing Jared Sprague-Lott to score the game-winning run from third base on pinch hitter Nolan Souza’s sacrifice fly to right.
McLaughlin (3-for-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBI), Wagner (2-for-2, RBI) and Jayson Jones (2-for-4, 2 2B) each finished with multi-hit games in Tuesday night’s wild come-from-behind win. Seven Razorbacks recorded at least one run batted in, led by McLaughlin’s two-RBI performance thanks to his seventh home run of the season.
On the mound, sophomore right-hander Ben Bybee started and was tagged for six runs on six hits with two strikeouts over his 1.1 innings of work. In relief, Christian Foutch (1.1 IP, 2 SO), Gage Wood (2.1 IP, 1 ER, 4 SO), Parker Coil (1.0 IP, 2 SO), McEntire (1.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 SO) and Gaeckle (1.2 IP, 1 SO) combined for 7.1 innings of two-run ball with 12 punchouts.
The midweek series finale between Arkansas and Texas Tech gets underway at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, on SEC Network with Karl Ravech (play-by-play) and Kyle Peterson (analyst) on the call. True freshman left-hander Colin Fisher will toe the rubber for the Razorbacks and go up against Red Raider junior right-hander Hudson Parker.
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