Arkansas Baseball Sweeps Georgia; Leads SEC at Midway Point

The Razorbacks went 4-0 this week. It was definitely a great way to bounce back from the two losses to LSU a week ago. Sweeping Georgia 3-0 was enough to put the Hogs in sole possession of first place in the SEC West as Mississippi State and Auburn went 2-1 in their SEC series this weekend.

The Tuesday game at Missouri State was actually remarkable as the Hogs notched their 26th win equaling their win total from the 2016 season with more than a month to go. The Razorback bats were lively and the runs were spread out among 6 innings with 5 of them coming in the 4th inning. Arkansas also used 8 different pitchers in the game.

Game 1 - Arkansas 14 - 4 Georgia

The first of 4 regular season Thursday games for the Hogs this season started out with a bang as Chad Spanberger hit a solo home run in the first inning. 4 more Hogs would go on to homer in the game including Carson Shaddy and Luke Bonfield as part of a 7-run 3rd inning. Blaine Knight used 88 pitches to go through 6 innings with only one run allowed.

Game 2 - Arkansas 5 -4 Georgia (10th inning)

Arkansas carried a 4-2 lead into the 9th inning, but gave up 2 runs to allow a 4-4 tie. Georgia scored on a fielder’s choice and due to a Carson Shaddy throwing error. The inning wasn’t over after the Bulldogs tied it up, but the Hogs managed to limit the damage. The Hogs were held scoreless in the bottom of the 9th and blanked the Bulldogs in the 10th.

Evan Lee came in to pinch hit in the bottom of the 9th. As one of the fastest base runners on the team, he was brought in to score. Lee worked a full count walk. Eric Cole came on to sacrifice bunt to move Lee over, but the bunt was good enough for Cole to get one base. Georgia pitcher, Blake Cairnes held the ball for too long before finally throwing it over the head of Georgia’s 1st Baseman. Lee advanced to 3rd as Georgia’s right fielder threw past the Georgia Catcher. The ball squirted towards the 3rd base dugout and Lee waited and waited and then finally went and scored the walk-off.

Game 3 - Arkansas 11 -3 Georgia

With the series in hand, Arkansas played confidently and rolled past the Bulldogs on Saturday. Thursday’s game featured a 7-run 3rd inning, but the Hogs got it going even sooner with a 7-run 2nd inning and never looked back. The win was good enough to make this season the best SEC Start since 2010.

Notably, Kevin Kopps who struggled against LSU last weekend worked 5.2 innings on Saturday and earned the win.

Hogs take on Memphis in Fayetteville and Little Rock this week, and travel to Auburn for the weekend.