By Robbie Neiswanger
Arkansas News Bureau • rneiswanger@arkansasnews.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas pitcher DJ Baxendale said he knew the fine line the Razorbacks were walking as he started throwing in the bullpen Saturday.
A win against Ole Miss in the series finale would deliver a Southeastern Conference Western Division title and send Arkansas to next week’s SEC Tournament. A loss would wipe it all away, forcing the Razorbacks to settle for an unthinkable five-way tie for the division championship and watch the eight-team SEC Tournament from home.
So when the sophomore got the call and trotted out to the mound in a tight game, he felt some obvious nerves.
“The butterflies came and my heart starting pumping,” Baxendale said. “I really had to control my emotions out there because there’s so much going on.”
But Baxendale was celebrating a little later after Arkansas completed a 5-3 win to finish a doubleheader sweep of Ole Miss (30-25, 13-17 in SEC). Arkansas (36-18, 15-15 in SEC) won the first game 2-0 behind a stellar start from left-handed pitcher Randall Fant (3-3).
Baxendale — who had thrown 107 pitches in 8 1/3 innings during Thursday night’s 2-1 loss — kept Ole Miss scoreless in the seventh and final inning to help the Razorbacks secure their first SEC Western Division title since 2007.
Arkansas also wrapped up the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament and will play Alabama on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. And the Hogs accomplished it in their typical way: rallying from behind to win for the 21st time this season.
“Our pitching staff is young,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “We lost a lot of power off of last year’s team. We know we don’t have the best hitting team. We don’t have the best fielding team. But I think we maybe have one of the toughest teams in the league. They hung in there.”
The series-ending win wrapped up a final day of the regular season in which every domino fell in place to help Arkansas win the division outright.
Alabama lost its series finale to South Carolina. Tennessee then scored two runs in the ninth inning to beat Auburn. And Mississippi State lost to LSU. All three had clinched spots in the SEC Tournament field, though, leaving the final leg of drama at Baum Stadium.
The winner was in. The loser out. And Arkansas trailed 3-0 at the time after Ole Miss designated hitter Matt Snyder hit a solo home run in the third inning of Cade Lynch, who replaced struggling starter Ryne Stanek. But Arkansas managed to get on the board in the bottom of the inning when Collin Kuhn hit a two-run home run.
It was his second of the day after his solo shot in Arkansas’ 2-0 win. And it also was his third of the series.
“It feels good I was able to help the team, just being able to get a couple of big hits and being able to get us above that line,” said Kuhn, who drove in five of Arkansas’ eight runs in the series.
The home run gave Arkansas new life, but it took a balk in the sixth to help the Razorbacks take the lead.
Arkansas shortstop Tim Carver initially appeared to hit into a double play when he flew out to left field and pinch runner Kyle Atkins was thrown out after running on contact to third without tagging up. But a balk had been called on Ole Miss reliever Brett Huber, which negated the outs and moved Atkins to third base and McKinney to second.
“We felt like some things didn’t go our way early,” Van Horn said. “We got one there. I didn’t hear him call it. Atkins did. That’s why he kept running. That was a very heady, smart play on his part. We rallied after that.”
Carver laid down a perfect squeeze bunt for a single that scored Atkins to tie the game. Bo Bigham followed with a single to score McKinney, which gave Arkansas a 4-3 lead. And Kuhn’s sacrifice fly opened a two-run lead.
Arkansas turned the game over to its pitching staff, which needed three outs to wrap up the championship.
Barrett Astin (5-1) — who kept Arkansas in the game with four scoreless relief innings — walked the leadoff batter to end his day. Van Horn put Trent Daniel on the mound, but he walked the next batter. So Baxendale got the call.
Van Horn said after Thursday’s game he didn’t want to know what was happening around the SEC, but changed his mind Saturday. He had SEC scores and scenarios relayed to him, he said, to know whether to pitch Baxendale or not.
With the SEC West title on the line, and the possibility of not even making the field, he went with Baxendale.
“I’ll be honest with you: I was nauseated putting him in the game,” Van Horn said. “I did not want to pitch him. But then I knew we were either going to win the West all by ourselves or we weren’t even going to the tournament.
“DJ wanted it. He told me before the game, ‘I’ve got one good inning.’”
After getting the first out, Baxendale threw a pitch that squirted by catcher James McCann. Ole Miss pinch runner Jordan King broke for home plate, but McCann recovered the ball and tossed it to Baxendale. King was called out.
It was one of several critical defensive plays Arkansas turned in during the doubleheader and all but wrapped up Saturday’s win. Baxendale walked the next batter, then got Austin Anderson to ground out to first to end the game.
“I’m very thankful the coaches gave me the opportunity to come in in a game like this,” Baxendale said. “Especially on one day’s rest after a start.
“It’s an unreal feeling right now.”
Baxendale said he knew what was going on in the SEC West race after listening to the scores being relayed to Arkansas’ coaching staff. Most of the players said afterward they did not know, though, only finding out how close they were to missing the SEC Tournament later.
Arkansas also didn’t know it had won the title outright, something that was announced to the crowd of 10,084 at Baum Stadium when the game ended. About the same time, McCann began hugging each one of his teammates after they walked through the team’s postgame handshake line.
“I hadn’t done that before,” said McCann, a team captain. “That was my way of telling everyone we did it. This is what we wanted to do all year was win the West. I was proud of my guys and proud of what we accomplished.”
2011 SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.
May 25
9:30 a.m. Game 1 – #7 Alabama vs. #2 Arkansas
TBD Game 2 – #6 Mississippi State vs. #3 Florida
4:30 pm Game 3 – #8 Auburn vs. #1 South Carolina
TBD Game 4 – #5 Georgia vs. #4 Vanderbilt
May 26
9:30 am Game 5 – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
TBD Game 6 – Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4
4:30 pm Game 7 – Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
TBD Game 8 – Winner Game 3 vs Winner Game 4
May 27
3:00 pm Game 9 – Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 7
TBD Game 10 – Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 8
May 28
9:30 am Game 11 – Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 9
TBD Game 12 – Winner Game 7 vs. Winter Game 10
5 pm Game 13 – Winner Game 11 vs. Loser Game 11 (if necessary)
TBD Game 14 – Winner Game 12 vs. Loser Game 12 (if necessary)
May 29
1 pm Game 15- Winner Game 13 vs. Winner Game 14
