Razorback slugging tames Golden Lions with ease

Hogs sweep UAPB in double- header between in- state schools

arkansasrazorbacks.com FAYETTEVILLE — The nationally-ranked No. 1 University of Arkansas Razorbacks had the bats working Tuesday night at Baum-Walker Stadium against a tough but mismatched University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff squad.

With junior center fielder Christian Franklin going 3for-4, including a 3-run home run, a double and six RBI, Coach Dave Van Horn’s Razorbacks eventually won and won handily, 12-4 in Tuesday’s opener of a 2-game nonconference series against UAPB of the Southwest Athletic Conference, but with nine hits and drawing six walks didn’t approach their 13hits, drawing 17 walks in Sunday’s surprising 18-14 slugfest over the SEC West Rebels in Oxford.

“That was a pretty well played game,” Van Horn said giving Coach Carlos James’ Golden Lions their due. “It went real fast there for a while.

I thought their starter, (Joel) Barker, he threw a lot of strikes. He really didn’t give us anything. He didn’t walk anybody. I think he might have hit one batter. He kind of kept us off balance, flipping it up there a lot different what we’ve seen. And we knew that was coming, but he did a nice job keeping them in the game.”

Until Franklin took it away. “I thought he had a great night,” Van Horn said of his right-hand hitting center fielder. “He really stuck with the approach. He stayed through the middle of the field. He singled to center field. I think his double was to left-center and his home run was to almost dead right field, straight away right field.”

Adjusting to slower SWAC pitching off SEC mid 90s heat, Razorbacks hitting coach Nate Thompson stressed hitting to the opposite field. “We worked on driving the ball to the opposite field so we wouldn’t get out front,” Franklin said. “And we knew we could turn on inside pitches if we got them. Just having a good approach and getting a good pitch to hit and we were able to do what we were able to. Coach Thompson does a really good job preparing us for all types of pitching.”

Coaches and players seemed surprisingly primed given Sunday’s emotional 4 and a half hours conclusion to taking 2 of 3 at Ole Miss.

“Yeah, it was a super emotional win Sunday, long game,” Franklin said. “It was a fun bus ride back but we had to focus up and get ready for this midweek series and I think our team does a good job being locked in.

Arkansas winning starter Caleb Bolden scattered seven hits and struck out nine through five complete Tuesday and handed a 4-1 lead to Cabot’s Zack Morris who pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh. Robert Moore’s single and Franklin’s double set the table for two Arkansas first-inning runs vs. losing starter Joel Barker on Brady Slavens’ unusual sacrifice fly, caught by the shortstop, and Ethan Bates’ RBI single.

“I thought it was a head’s up play,” Van Horn said of Moore tagging up on the shortstop caught fly. “What he (Moore) saw, and what (third base coach) Coach Thompson saw over there is that the shortstop just continued to drift back under the ball, and his momentum was going away from the plate.”

Franklin singled home two more in the second.

Arkansas scored five in the seventh, including a Franklin bases-loaded RBI walk, and finished with Franklin’s 3-run home run in the eighth.

Justin Rieschick’s RBI single in the fifth registered UAPB’s first run.

The Golden Lions scored three in the eighth on Dante Leach’s bases-loaded triple vs. reliever Gabriel Starks.

Heston Tole pitched a scoreless ninth.

Morris, Starks, and Tole combined for nine strikeouts the final four innings adding to Bolden’s nine through five.

“Caleb got us off to a good start,” Van Horn said. “He threw a lot of strikeouts and they’ve got a couple of guys at the top of the lineup that can swing the bat.”

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Photo courtesy of UAPB RAZORBACKS (cont.)

The Razorbacks and Golden Lions concluded their 2-game series on Wednesday and it was another rout by the home team. The nation’s leader in home runs added to its total in a big way as the Razorbacks smashed eight homers in a 26-1 blowout win, finishing one shy of tying the single-game school record of nine (vs.

Grambling State, June, 4, 2010). The output brings the Hogs’ season total to 63, which is nine more than any other team in college baseball this season.

Wednesday night’s contest was called after the top of the seventh inning with the run rule in effect. Arkansas improves to 28-5 on the year with the win and has won all five games against in-state opponents this season.

Matt Goodheart, Brady Slavens, Cullen Smith and Charlie Welch each swatted two home runs in the 26run onslaught, contributing to the Hogs’ 17 hits on the afternoon. Slavens’ threerun shot in the third tied him with Christian Franklin for the team lead in home runs (9).

Arkansas scored multiple runs in the first, second and third innings, opening a 151 lead by the fourth. The Hogs nearly doubled that total in the bottom half of the fifth with 11 more runs, three shy of the singleinning program record of 14 (first inning vs. Saint Louis, April, 7, 2010).

Goodheart led the squad with four base knocks, his second four-hit effort of the season. His first home of the evening traveled 450 feet to right, leaving the bat at 110 miles per hour with a 50-degree launch angle and clearing the newly constructed J.B. and Johnelle Hunt Family Baseball Development Center.

He and Slavens each drove in five runs in the 26-1 win. Welch, meanwhile, collected a career-best four RBI.

Kole Ramage started on the mound and earned the win, striking out four in two scoreless innings. Seven Hog relievers pitched in the winning effort, combining for five innings of two-hit, one-run ball with seven strikeouts.

Offensively, the Razorbacks had not scored 26 runs in a ballgame since doing so against Iowa on Feb. 24, 1997, in Arlington, Texas. Arkansas hit six or more home runs in a game for the first time since a 32-4 win against Bucknell on Feb. 17, 2018, when Jared Gates, Luke Bonfield, Carson Shaddy, Dominic Fletcher, Grant Koch and Casey Martin each hit one.