Hogs Down Jays In Fayetteville Regional
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- The No. 3 national seed Arkansas Baseball team moved into the driver's seat of the Fayetteville Regional with a 12-1 win over Creighton on Saturday night before 10,115 partisan fans at Baum-Walker Stadium. Arkansas hit five homers and took advantage of 12 walks and two hit batsmen by a Bluejay pitching staff that entered the day ranked 14th nationally in ERA.
Creighton (42-15), which had its eight-game win streak snapped, will look to extend its season on Sunday at 2 p.m. when it faces North Dakota State (21-33) in an elimination game. It'll be the third time this season the teams have played after splitting a pair of midweek battles in Omaha in April.
The winner of Sunday afternoon's CU/NDSU elimination game will then have to turn around to face Arkansas (45-13) in the 8 p.m. Regional Final, needing to beat the Razorbacks both Sunday night and Monday to advance to the Super Regionals.
Arkansas got on the board first as Omaha native Cam Kozeal hit his 15th homer of the season over the bullpen in left with one out in the second frame. The Hogs then put together a two-out rally as Brett Iredale singled, Reese Robinett walked, Justin Thomas reached via an infield single and Charles Davalan was hit by a pitch to force in Iredale and double the UA lead to 2-0.
The Razorbacks added to their lead in the third inning. Singles by Logan Maxwell and Ryder Helfrick set the table for Kozeal, who doubled into the right-field corner to make it 3-0. Kozeal later scored on a two-out single by Robinette.
Arkansas put up a three-spot in the fifth inning when SEC Player of the Year Wehiwa Aloy turned around Shea Wendt's 92 mph fastball into the left-field bullpen, plating Robinette and Davalan who had both walked. Wendt also surrendered a homer to Helfrick to open the sixth inning as the Jays fell behind 8-0.
Aloy and Helfrick both hit their second homers of the night, each a two-run shot, as the Hogs took a 12-0 lead in the top of the seventh.
CU's lone run of the night came in the bottom of the seventh inning against Razorback reliever Ben Bybee. He walked Teddy Deters to open the frame, and the senior outfielder came around to score on a fielder's choice ground out by Tate Gillen.
Deters reached base three times for CU to pace an offense that finished with five hits, but one of those hits was the first career single from Jaxon Goldberg in the ninth inning.
Magers (6-3) allowed seven hits and four runs before exiting after three innings and suffered the loss. Wendt allowed four runs in three innings of relief, allowing just two hits (both homers) to go along with a season-high seven walks. Also seeing action out of the pen were Anthony Unga and Shane Curtin. Curtin threw three innings of scoreless ball to help save a pitching staff that will need to navigate 27 innings over the next two days in order to keep its season alive.
Arkansas ace Zach Root improved to 7-5 with six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out seven, including called strikeouts to end the third, fourth and fifth innings. Aloy went 2-for-4 with a pair of homers and drove in five for Arkansas, while Helfrick had two homers and reached past five times.