Hogs bow out early from NCAA baseball tourney

Razorbacks’s season ends with diappointing 1-3 showing in Fayetteville Regional

From the University of Arkansas

arkansasrazorbacks.com

FAYETTEVILLE – The 2024 Arkansas Razorback baseball season has come to an end.

No. 5 Arkansas (44-16) concluded the campaign with a 63 loss against SEMO (36-26) in the NCAA Fayetteville Regional Sunday afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium. With 44 wins on the year, the Razorbacks finished with 40 or more wins for the seventh consecutive season to remain the winningest college baseball program in the country since 2017.

The Razorbacks went 1-2 in the Regional, with plenty of offense but too many runs given up by Hogs’ pitching

Game 1 Hogs 17, SEMO 9

Led by Ben McLaughlin and Hudson White’s multi-homer games, Arkansas hit six long balls and outslugged SEMO, 17-9, in Friday’s NCAA Fayetteville Regional opener at Baum-Walker Stadium.

The Razorbacks won their 34th game of the season at Baum-Walker Stadium, tying the single-season program record of 34 set in 2018. Excluding 2020, Arkansas has won 28-plus games at Baum-Walker Stadium in seven consecutive seasons.

Arkansas came out swinging and tagged SEMO starter Haden Dow for six runs (three earned) in his 1.2 innings of work. The Hogs opened a commanding 8-0 lead after two innings of play, benefiting from White’s one-out solo shot in the first and McLaughlin’s two-out, three-run blast – his first of two three-run homers on the afternoon – in the second.

Peyton Holt (2-for-4, RBI), Ty Wilmsmeyer (2-for-5, 3 R, 2B, RBI) and Jared Sprague-Lott (1-for-4, 2 RBI) also contributed to the early eight-run outburst, chipping in with RBI of their own during the Razorbacks’ seven-run second inning.

SEMO would not down quietly, however, responding with a four-spot in the top half of the third to cut Arkansas’ lead in half. Starter Mason Molina lasted only 2.2 innings, allowing four runs on two hits and four walks with four strikeouts.

The Redhawks did not stop there, completely erasing their early eight-run deficit and tying the game at eight in the top of the fifth. Veteran righthander Will McEntire entered in relief of Molina and was chased after 1.2 innings on the mound, allowing four runs on three hits and a walk while punching out one.

McEntire’s lone strikeout was a historic one, however, as it marked the 675th in 58 games by an Arkansas pitcher this season, breaking the Razorbacks’ single-season program record of 674 set over 67 games during the 2022 campaign.

Evened up at eight apiece, Arkansas came roaring back.

Wehiwa Aloy (2-for-5, 2B, HR, RBI) and Kendall Diggs (2-for-3, 3 R, HR, RBI) connected on back-to-back homers in the bottom of the fifth to put the Hogs back in front, 10-8.

From there, it was all Hogs.

SEMO would cut its deficit to one in the seventh, but Arkansas scored four in the bottom half of the frame, including three on McLaughlin’s second three-run homer of the game, to open a 14-9 advantage.

White’s three-run blast in the bottom of the eighth, his second of the afternoon and the Razorbacks’ third three-run blast of the ballgame, extended Arkansas’ lead to 17-9. McLaughlin finished with a team-leading three hits, going 3-for-5 with a double, two home runs and a team-high six RBI, while White went 2for-5 with his pair of homers and five RBI.

After Molina and McEntire departed the game, Christian

See HOGS, page A8 HOGS

From page A7

Foutch (0.2 IP, 1 SO), Gabe Gaeckle (3.0 IP, 1 R, 6 SO) and Jake Faherty (1.0 IP, 1 SO) worked the final 4.2 innings and combined for eight strikeouts while allowing just one run. Foutch earned his first win of the season, and Gaeckle totaled a career-high six strikeouts over a seasonlong- tying three frames.

Game 2 Kansas St. 7, Hogs 6

A late rally, including Peyton Holt’s two-run homer in the top of the ninth, was not enough to lead Arkansas to a come-from-behind win over Kansas State, as the Hogs suffered a 7-6 defeat Saturday night at Baum-Walker Stadium to set up a must-win scenario in order to advance from the NCAA Fayetteville Regional.

Friday night’s game began as an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel, as Arkansas ace Hagen Smith and Kansas State righthander Jackson Wentworth exchanged zeroes through the first four innings. The Razorbacks opened the scoring in the top of the fifth, posting a two-spot on a run-scoring wild pitch followed by Hudson White’s one-out RBI single to center.

Kansas State’s response was immediate, however, exploding for six runs against Smith, the most he has allowed all season, in the bottom half of the inning. The biggest blow came off the bat of Kaelen Culpepper, who jacked a three-run home run to right center to give the Wildcats a 6-2 lead and silence a raucous Baum-Walker Stadium crowd of 11,213.

Smith departed the ballgame after five innings of work, allowing a season-high six runs on four hits and four walks while striking out seven. The junior left-hander, the program’s all-time strikeout leader, raised his season punchout total to 161 to break Arkansas’ single-season strikeout record, previously held by David Walling (155 strikeouts in 1991).

Ahead by four, Kansas State called on relief ace Tyson Neighbors in relief of Wentworth, who limited the Hogs to two runs on seven hits and three walks over 5.2 innings.

The Razorback offense had much better success against Neighbors, tagging the Wildcat right-hander for four runs in six hits and a walk in his 3.1 innings of the work.

Jared Sprague-Lott hit a solo homer, his ninth of the season, in the seventh to cut Arkansas’ deficit to three before White smoked a double to left in the top of the eighth, collecting his second RBI of the night and bringing the Hogs within two runs. In relief of Smith, Ben Bybee emerged from the bullpen to toss three strong innings with four strikeouts.

The only blemish of Bybee’s relief outing was a two-out solo homer in the bottom of the eighth, which extended Kansas State’s lead from 6-4 to 7-4. The solo shot proved costly, as Holt’s two-run homer with one out in the top of the ninth gave Arkansas its fifth and sixth runs of the night and made it a one-run ballgame at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Neighbors would retire two of the next three batters following Holt’s home run to secure his ninth save of the season and clinch the 7-6 win over Arkansas, putting Kansas State in the driver’s seat of the NCAA Fayetteville Regional.

The Razorbacks outhit the Wildcats, 13-5, led by multihit performances from White (2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI), Sprague-Lott (2-for-5, HR, RBI), Wehiwa Aloy (2-for-5), Holt (2-for-5, HR, 2 RBI) and Ty Wilmsmeyer (2-for-3, 2 BB).

Arkansas stranded 13 base runners, however, hitting just .273 (6-for-22) with runners on and .273 (3-for-11) with runners in scoring position.

Game 3 SEMO 6, Hogs 3

Peyton Holt and Parker Rowland each homered for the Hogs in Sunday’s season-ending loss. Holt went yard for the second game in a row and collected a team-leading two hits to finish the season with a .322/.412/.507 slash line, while Rowland turned in a team-leading two RBI thanks to his two-run homer – his first of the season – in the ninth inning.

On the mound, Razorback starter Gage Wood tossed three innings of four-run ball with four strikeouts. In relief, Jake Faherty (2.0 IP, 1 R, 4 SO), Will McEntire (1.2 IP, 1 R, 3 SO), Stone Hewlett (0.1 IP, 1 SO), Christian Foutch (0.2 IP) and Koty Frank (0.1 IP) combined to work the game’s final five frames and limit the Redhawks to just two runs.

Foutch finished his sophomore campaign with a 1-0 record, a miniscule 0.81 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 22.1 innings over 20 appearances.

The Littleton, Colo., native’s 0.81 ERA is the lowest by a Razorback pitcher to appear in at least 20 percent of the team’s games since Kevin Kopps’ 0.90 ERA in 89.2 innings over 33 appearances in the 2021 season.

SEMO kicked off Sunday’s scoring in the bottom half of the first with a run before tacking on three in the fourth to open a 4-0 advantage.

Holt’s solo shot in the top half of the fifth put Arkansas on the board, but it would not be enough.

The Redhawks answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth and added another in the seventh, taking a 6-1 lead into the eighth. The Hogs put runners on second and third with no outs in the top of the eighth but failed to score.

Rowland’s two-run blast came with one out in the ninth and cut Arkansas’ deficit to three, but it was too little too late.

SEMO would retire the next two batters to secure a 6-3 win and eliminate the Razorbacks from postseason play.

Follow the Hogs

For complete coverage of Arkansas baseball, follow the Hogs on Twitter (@RazorbackBSB), Instagram (@RazorbackBSB) and Facebook (Arkansas Razorback Baseball).