By Robbie Neiswanger
Arkansas News Bureau • rneiswanger@arkansasnews.com
FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas baseball team learned a little more about itself during its weekend series against Troy.
Andy Wilkins and Zack Cox continued to show they’re a dominant duo in the middle of the order, combining for three home runs and 14 RBIs. Freshman DJ Baxendale showed confidence as a closer, earning a pair of saves on back-to-back days. And the Razorbacks’ infield, hit by the loss of second baseman Bo Bigham, even showed it has options after several starters played well in different positions Sunday.
But there’s one concern Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn had about his team despite finishing off a three-game sweep with Sunday’s 7-6 win against Troy in front of 5,916 in Baum Stadium. He said it’s clear the Razorbacks haven’t exactly figured out what to do after jumping out to big leads.
“Obviously when you get a big lead you need to put somebody away,” Van Horn said. “I think we’re still learning. The new guys are just figuring it out.”
For the second straight day, Arkansas (5-1) nearly learned the hard way. The Razorbacks built a big lead against Troy (3-4), but needed big defensive plays and some solid relief pitching in the late innings to win the game.
The Razorbacks jumped all over starting pitcher Andrew Dickinson (1-1) in the first two innings, scoring seven runs. Wilkins turned in the big hit with a three-run double in the second. Cox had RBIs in both innings.
“We come out scoring seven runs in the beginning and we thought we were rolling a little bit,” Wilkins said.
But Arkansas’ offense — which collected six home runs and scored 27 runs in the series — unexpectedly cooled for the second straight day. On Saturday, the Hogs led 10-4 after four before holding on for a 10-8 win. On Sunday, the Razorbacks managed one hit in the final six innings.
Troy got on the board in the third when Arkansas starter Brett Eibner (2-0) threw a wild pitch that scored Chad Watson from third. The Trojans got five more in the sixth off Arkansas relievers Sam Murphy and Jordan Pratt.
Pratt gave up the big hit when he stepped on the mound in relief of Murphy with one out and the bases loaded. Troy’s T.J. Rivera, who hit two home runs Saturday, clubbed a grand slam to cut Arkansas’ lead to 7-6.
“Sometimes an early big inning can be not a good thing,” Van Horn said. “Sometimes you lose your focus.”
Arkansas needed a few big plays in the late innings from its pitching staff and defense to finish off Troy.
Reliever Geoffrey Davenport replaced Pratt with one on and one out in the seventh. And after allowing a single, he retired the next two batters to get out of the inning.
Then Arkansas turned a critical 6-4-3 double play with Davenport in the eighth inning to kill another Troy opportunity.
It all led to the ninth, where Baxendale got three ground ball outs to earn his second save of the season.
“It was a good finish by the defense and the pitching,” Cox said. “But we sat on seven runs. I feel kind of lucky we came out with a victory. We can’t do that anymore.”
Arkansas didn’t lose sight of the fact it grabbed three wins over the weekend, though. The Razorbacks, who have won four straight, will get bigger tests next week when they play Kansas on Tuesday, then travels to play California.
Cox said it’s a chance for the Razorbacks to improve offensively after some late-inning dry spells against Troy.
“We swept them and we build off of that,” Cox said. “But in all honesty, I don’t feel like we’re anywhere near where we need to be. We got a lot of improving to do. It was nice to sweep. It was good to see, but I think we’re a lot better team than what we actually showed this weekend.”
