Arkansas’s FAYETTEVILLE Arkansas overcame an early setback to defeat the James Madison Dukes 6-4 thanks to 5 2/3 innings of relief from Will McEntire. Arkansas standout Hagen Smith got off to a cold start because of the bitter cold. There was a lot of discussion in the offseason about increased command, but it was nonexistent in the first inning. Two walks and a hit-by-pitch put the first two Dukes on base in the first inning, forcing James Madison to force Smith to throw 42 pitches. The visitors took an early 3-0 lead when Ferwick Trimble blasted a three-run home run over the right-center field wall.
After just one inning, Smith’s afternoon was done, but not before the Razorbacks, with a little assistance from the weather, answered with two runs. Diggs should have been out with nobody on after a can of corn fly ball to right field, but the wind made it possible for him to reach on a lucky double. With RBI singles from Ben McLaughlin and Peyton Holt, the deficit was cut to 3-2.
After starting in place of an injured Peyton Stovall, third baseman Jared Sprague Lott up the Hog season account for homers with a 43-degree launch angle moonshot over the left field wall, erasing James Madison’s lead one batter into the second. Two batters later, White launched a single home run to give the Razorbacks their first lead of the day, 4-3.
Sprague-Lott’s fantastic day continued as the Hogs easily defeated the Dukes 6-3. A single to right in the third inning allowed two two-out runs to score, but he was caught in a rundown for the third out of the inning, which led to two walks and a double steal. After both teams calmed down, Sprague-Lott ended the fifth inning with another strong play, a running play up against the railing. With a triple shy of the cycle, Trimble single-handedly kept the Dukes in the game with a leadoff double to left centre to begin the sixth inning. He later scored on two groundouts to make the score 6-4.
After throwing just 71 pitches and striking out six, McEntire’s productive performance came to an end with two outs in the eighth. Entering the game, Gauge Wood struck out the last batter of the inning to give the team a two-run lead going into the seventh inning.
Despite having two runners in each of the seventh and eighth innings, the Razorbacks were unable to secure insurance runs and failed to close the gap. Gauge Wood earned the save after finishing the game with two and a third scoreless innings. On February 16, the four-game series will resume at 2:00 p.m. and be televised on SEC Network+.
