FAYETTEVILLE — A strong start carried the second-ranked Arkansas baseball team Tuesday night.
The Razorbacks scored 11 runs in the first 4 innings and got a solid 3-inning start from sophomore right-hander Gage Wood during a 12-7 victory over Missouri State in front of 9,890 at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Arkansas (38-7) improved to 11-0 in midweek games and to 30-2 at home.
Making his first career start, Wood faced the minimum. He allowed 1 hit, struck out 4 and threw 25 of 43 pitches for strikes.
“[I was] as comfortable as you can get, I guess,” Wood said. “It was more fun than anything.”
Wood allowed a one-out single to Bryant-native Logan Chambers in the third inning. Chambers was thrown out by catcher Hudson White at second base to end the half inning.
Otherwise, the Bears (18-25) had no success at all against Wood.
“I thought Gage Wood came out and did a great job, gave us three really good innings,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “We had built up a lead after the first inning. That second inning he came out and got them out quick. That was big.”
Arkansas shortstop Wehiwa Aloy hit his third grand slam of the season against Missouri State starting left-hander Brendan Beaver with no outs in the first inning. It followed singles by Peyton Stovall, Peyton Holt and Jared Sprague-Lott (bunt).
Aloy’s home run was measured 406 feet to center field. It came on the 10th pitch thrown by Beaver.
“That was a great start,” Van Horn said. “I mean, what more could you want?”
Holt added an infield RBI single against Beaver to score Will Edmunson (hit by pitch) in the second inning. Beaver allowed 5 runs and 5 hits and struck out 2 in his 2-inning, 41-pitch start.
Arkansas scored four more in the third inning against right-hander Stephen Schissler to go ahead 9-0. Jack Wagner (single) and White (double) had RBI hits in the inning and both scored on a two-out error by Missouri State second baseman Nick Rodriguez.
“Our nemesis all year has been giving up the big innings, and we gave up four in the first and then we gave up another four later,” Missouri State coach Keith Guttin said. “That’s something that has hurt us.”
Missouri State scored four runs in the top of the fourth inning against Arkansas’ first reliever, right-hander Cooper Dossett, to cut the deficit to 9-4.
Rodriguez had an RBI single, former Arkansas catcher Dylan Leach was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Chambers had a two-run single to right field after Dossett was replaced by Christian Foutch.
Foutch struck out Caden Bogenpohl to end the top of the fourth and strand the bases loaded.
“He did a good job for us,” Van Horn said of Foutch, who inherited the bases loaded. “He got us in the dugout in about nine pitches.”
The Razorbacks scored twice in the bottom of the fourth to go ahead 11-4. Sprague-Lott led off with a walk and scored from first base on Ryder Helfrick’s double to left field. After he stole third base, Helfrick scored on Jayson Jones’ RBI single.
A three-run home run by Taeg Gollert against Arkansas left-hander Parker Coil pulled the Bears within 11-7 in the seventh inning, but the Razorbacks added to their lead when Sprague-Lott hit a 402-foot home run to left in the eighth.
Arkansas out-hit Missouri State 10-5.
“They don’t have a lot of double-digit home run guys, but they’ve got a very productive offense,” Guttin said. “They run well. They’re hard to strike out. They play good defense and all that combined with great pitching. That’s a pretty good team.”
Will McEntire (sixth inning), Gabe Gaeckle (eighth) and Jake Faherty (ninth) worked perfect innings in relief for the Razorbacks.
“I really wanted McEntire to get out there and throw an inning tonight and he did a good job with it,” Van Horn said. “And we wanted Gaeckle to throw one inning tonight and that’s why we didn’t bring him back out.
“We probably used a couple of guys we were going to throw tomorrow....I imagine both teams will be a little thin on pitching tomorrow with conference coming up and what it means for both teams.”
A lack of command made for an uncharacteristic night for Arkansas’ bullpen. Dossett, Coil and Stone Hewlett combined to allow 7 runs (6 earned) with 6 walks and 3 hit batsmen. Hewlett was able to work a scoreless fifth when he issued two walks.
“If you take away maybe, I don't know, two guys, it wasn’t bad,” said Van Horn, who added, “Hopefully the next time they get on the mound they do a little better job.”
Why Arkansas won
The Razorbacks got off to a great start that provided plenty of cushion for when Missouri State made a push in the middle innings.
Player of the Game: Arkansas 3B Jared Sprague-Lott
Batting third, Sprague-Lott went 2 for 4 with 1 walk, 3 runs and 1 RBI.
He has three consecutive multi-hit games after he was held hitless last Friday in his first game back from an oblique injury that kept him out of the lineup for five games.
“Taking the time off, you get to see a lot of things from the sideline,” Sprague-Lott said. “I’ve just been really trying to simplify and luckily it's going pretty well right now.”
Up next
The teams are scheduled to conclude a two-game midweek series Wednesday at 4 p.m.