By Robbie Neiswanger
Arkansas News Bureau • rneiswanger@arkansasnews.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ pitching staff kept Auburn’s lineup in check for eight innings Saturday.
The Tigers’ big hitters made contact, but couldn’t get the baseball to drop in play in the early innings. They weren’t very sharp late, either, managing two hits over the final four innings.
But there was one problem: Auburn, which has the Southeastern Conference’s best offense, scored all the runs it needed in the fifth inning.
The Tigers evened the weekend series behind an enormous inning, which pushed them to an 8-7 win against Arkansas in front of an announced crowd of 8,379 in Baum Stadium. Auburn (29-15, 11-9 in SEC) scored eight runs in the inning, clubbed four home runs and collected seven hits off three pitchers.
It snapped Arkansas’ 11-game home winning streak and also pushed the Hogs (35-9, 14-6) close to losing their first SEC series at Baum Stadium. The teams will meet in the finale today at 1:05.
“In college baseball, when you’re playing with aluminum bats, the big inning is going to happen at some point for a lot of teams,” Auburn first baseman Hunter Morris said. “For us, all of it happened to come in one, which was obviously a huge turning point for us. It was the only turning point for us.”
Morris did most of the damage, helping the Tigers overcome a 3-0 deficit courtesy of Brett Eibner’s three-run home run in the first inning. The junior led off the fifth inning with a solo home run off Arkansas starter Randall Fant to cut it to 3-1.
Catcher Ryan Jenkins followed with a two-run shot off Fant to tie the game 3-3. Third baseman Dan Gamache then hit a solo home run to make it 4-3.
“They have a good team, good hitters,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said.
“We made a few mistakes and they hurt us.”
But Auburn wasn’t done. Fant (3-1) left and was replaced by Jeremy Heatley, who gave up a two-run single to Brian Fletcher. Morris returned to the plate and capped the inning with a two-run shot.
The eight-run inning equaled Auburn’s biggest of the season. It also was the most runs Arkansas has allowed in any inning this season.
“That’s college baseball,” said Auburn coach John Pawlowski, whose team leads the SEC with 78 home runs this season. “You have a chance to score some runs quickly. Big, strong kids with aluminum bats.”
But Auburn got a strong performance on the mound, too, from reliever Slade Smith. Starter Stephen Kohlscheen — who made his second career start — was pulled after the shaky first and Smith (2-0) kept the Razorbacks scoreless over the next four innings.
Arkansas eventually clawed its way back after picking up a run in the sixth and two in the seventh to make it 8-6. First baseman Andy Wilkins’ RBI single made it 8-7 with one out in the ninth, too, but the Razorbacks couldn’t push the tying run home.
Eibner advanced to third on Wilkins’ single and, with Monk Kreder at the plate, had a chance to score when a pitch bounced away from Jenkins. However, Eibner said he was watching the ball and didn’t really know how far Jenkins was from finding it.
“It’s hard to read just because of the depth perception,” Eibner said. “I didn’t know how far it was from him. The only thing I could’ve gone off of was he was looking around for it. I could’ve gone off of that, but I was watching the ball.”
Kreder eventually popped out to shallow right field, eliminating the chance for Eibner to score on a sacrifice fly. The Razorbacks sent pinch hitter Tom Hauskey, who has had two game-winning hits in the ninth inning this season, but Auburn closer Austin Hubbard struck him out to end the game.
“We’ve just got to put the bat on the ball a little better with one out in the bottom of the ninth and a runner on third,” Van Horn said of Kreder’s at-bat. “That was the at-bat of the game. We worked hard to get there, disappointing it didn’t happen for us.”
But Eibner said Arkansas, which has battled from behind to win games all season, isn’t discouraged.
“We don’t give up,” he said. “We’ve got to come out here, forget about it and come out here (today) and do what we can to win the series.”
