Arkansas’ second-ranked baseball team took the outright SEC lead Friday.
The Razorbacks scored 10 times over the fifth, sixth and seventh innings and blew out eighth-ranked Kentucky 10-3 at Kentucky Proud Park. The teams entered the game tied atop the SEC standings.
Arkansas (40-7, 17-5 SEC) remained undefeated in games started by ace left-hander Hagen Smith, who struck out 14 and allowed 1 run, 3 hits and 1 walk in 6 innings. Smith earned his ninth win to go with three no-decisions in 12 starts.
“Hagen’s stuff was amazing,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “Especially from about the third inning on, he ramped it up a little bit. He was amazing.”
Smith’s ERA increased slightly to 1.36 and he improved his WHIP to 0.80 and his nation-leading strikeouts per 9 innings to 17. He threw 70 of 101 pitches for strikes.
“He did to us what he’s done to everybody else,” Kentucky coach Nick Mingione said. “Quite frankly, I thought we’d have better at-bats than that, but he got us 14 times in six innings.”
The Wildcats (33-10, 16-6) took a 1-0 lead on Ryan Waldschmidt’s two-out RBI double in the third inning to score nine-hole hitter Devin Burkes (single). Burkes was Kentucky's first base runner and benefitted from a couple of defensive miscues by the Razorbacks, neither of which was scored an error.
Arkansas tied the game 1-1 on Peyton Stovall’s RBI double to score Hudson White (double) in the top of the fifth inning, but Kentucky appeared primed to regain the lead in the bottom of the fifth when Nolan McCarthy led off with a walk, was bunted to second base and stole third with one out.
With the infield in, Smith struck out Burkes for the second out, then struck out Waldschmidt, the leadoff hitter, to strand the go-ahead run at third.
“He didn’t need his infield,” Van Horn said. “He just needed his catcher. It was great to see. He got after them.”
“He was determined not to let them score,” Van Horn added.
Smith and relievers Will McEntire and Dylan Carter combined for 10 base runners — three in the ninth inning — and 18 strikeouts.
Arkansas took the lead with a three-run sixth. The Razorbacks scored 6 two-out runs in the seventh to take command.
Pitching with the lead for the first time, Smith worked around a leadoff walk in the sixth and ended his outing with three consecutive strikeouts.
“After getting out for the [fifth] inning I felt really confident going into the sixth,” Smith said.
Kendall Diggs had two-run RBI hits in the sixth and seventh innings to snap a streak of 15 consecutive at-bats without a base hit.
Diggs’ one-out double against reliever Cameron O’Brien gave Arkansas a 3-1 lead in the sixth. Ross Lovich added a two-out pinch-hit double to score Diggs that increased Arkansas’ lead to 4-1.
Diggs’ single with the bases loaded kick started the two-out rally in the seventh. White also singled, Stovall and Jared Sprague-Lott drew bases-loaded walks and Lovich scored on a wild pitch by Cooper Robinson to put the Razorbacks ahead 10-1.
“It felt really good,” said Diggs, whose 4 RBI tied a career high. “The past couple of weeks have been tough for me at the plate as far as producing and knowing what I’m capable of. It was really good to come through for the guys.”
McEntire pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings. With a moderate rain falling, Carter allowed two runs in the ninth inning.
Carter walked Mitchell Daly and McCarthy. Both scored after advancing twice on indifference. Daly scored on a wild pitch and McCarthy on Burkes’ two-out RBI single.
“Carter was pitching in the rain and there were a couple of pitches close he didn’t get,” Van Horn said. “He hung in there.
“We got to save our bullpen a little bit.”
Kentucky right-hander Trey Pooser took the loss with 3 runs, 4 hits, 4 walks and 4 strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. He threw 61 of 100 pitches for strikes.
O’Brien allowed a run in the sixth inning. Four runs were charged to Jackson Nove in the seventh and two were scored against Robinson.
Kentucky allowed a double-digit run total for the fourth time in five SEC games. The Razorbacks’ 10 runs were their most in an SEC game.
“We didn’t make enough pitches,” Mingione said. “We got to where we kind of lost the strike zone and it cost us.”
Arkansas out-hit Kentucky 11-5 and stranded 11 runners. The Razorbacks struggled early to push runs home in scoring situations. Arkansas went 7 for 27 with runners on base and 5 for 17 with runners in scoring position.
Why Arkansas won
The Razorbacks got a typical great series-opening out on the mound and broke Kentucky's spirit with a couple of big innings in latter innings.
Player of the Game: Arkansas LHP Hagen Smith
Smith battled a couple of innings with high pitch counts and held the Wildcats to one run despite multiple quality scoring opportunities.
His back-to-back strikeouts to strand a runner at third base in the fifth inning seemed to propel the Razorbacks' three-run outburst in the top of the sixth.
“His stuff is just really good,” Mingione said.
West race
Arkansas not only took the overall SEC lead, but increased its lead in the SEC West to two games after top-ranked Texas A&M lost 6-4 at LSU.
The Razorbacks and the Aggies will play against each other to end the regular season in two weeks.
Up next
The Razorbacks will go for the series win Saturday with a first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. Central.