FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas completed a sweep of Murray State 5-3 on Sunday at Baum-Walker Stadium with Mason Molina picking up another win before 9396 fans.
Molina (2-0), the left-handed transfer from Texas Tech, worked five innings to earn the win. He allowed two hits, an earned run, walked a hitter and struck out 10. Gage Wood replaced him, but struggled in his 0.1 inning of work. Will McEntire pitched the final 3.2 innings allowing three hits, an earned run and struck out five. Combined with one Wood fanned that gave the Arkansas staff 16 strikeouts on the day. Dave Van Horn was asked about the pitching performance afterward?
"Molina did a nice job giving us an opportunity early to stay in the game and get the lead after we finally scored there in the third," Van Horn said. "He maybe walked one, struck out nine or 10 (the latter). You know, he had good stuff, didn’t have his best stuff. But his change-up was good. He made a couple of mistakes. Their hitters, they got to the point where they started sitting on his change-up a little bit. Then we started mixing more fastballs.
"McEntire threw in the two games I think maybe 5 1/3 or something like that, and only threw like 60 pitches total. What did he throw today? Yeah, 43 so something like 53 pitches (he threw 12 Saturday, so 55 in two games). So really good job by Mac. We’ll obviously give him Tuesday off. It was good to win three, especially when you didn’t play very well today and we still found a way to win because our pitching did a nice job. We hit just enough."
Wood didn't have his normal good stuff. The former Batesville standout allowed three hits and a run in his short time on the hill.
"Yeah, just made a couple mistakes," Van Horn said. "I think about he got the first hitter out pretty easy and then he had the next hitter down like 1-2, threw cutter that needed to be down and away where it was called and it ended up starting in and then ended up down the middle in, kind of ran it right into his barrel and he singled to left. That’s kind of the way it works. The game can be really fragile sometimes and he’s struggling a little bit. He needed a game where he can gain his confidence. Hopefully we’ll put him back out there on Tuesday."
The game ended with the tying run at the plate so Van Horn admitted the team was in a fight.
"Yeah, feel fortunate to win that game," Van Horn said. "Obviously we didn’t play great and scored just enough runs. Give them credit, Murray State. They come out swinging the bats and they played hard. They were fighting to get a win. I thought our guys did a pretty good job of jumping on a couple of mistakes and scoring a run here or there."
In the top of the second, Murray State catcher Taylor Howell belted a solo shot off of Molina over the fence in left field for a 1-0 lead.
The Razorbacks answered with two in the bottom of the third to take the lead for the first time. Second baseman Nolan Souza hit a solo home run to start the inning. Catcher Hudson White singled with one out. He advanced to third on a single by center fielder Will Edmunson. White tagged and scored on a sacrifice fly by right fielder Kendall Diggs.
The Hogs added two more runs in the bottom of the fourth. Jared Sprague-Lott and Jayson Jones singled. They advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. Souza then delivered a single to center field to plate the pair for a 4-1 lead.
"Good to see Souza, a freshman, come through with the home run that tied it up and really the base hit up the middle again after fighting and punched in a couple more runs," Van Horn said. "He obviously had a really good couple of days. "
Murray State added a run in the sixth and then shortstop Drew Vogel hit a solo home run in the top of the eighth to pull the Racers to within 4-3.
Edmunson reached on a Vogel error in the bottom of the eighth. He stole second. He advanced to third on a single by Diggs. Edmunson scored when shortstop Wehiwa Aloy hit into a double play.
Van Horn was advised after the game that McEntire threw 43 pitches with 37 being strikes for the former Bryant standout.
"That’s amazing," Van Horn said. "I didn’t realize that. That’s strike percentage is something else. Some of them were strikes they took. Some of them were pitches they thought were strikes that were out of the zone, and that’s what a good pitcher can do to you. They fool you a little bit. Yeah, that’s amazing, 37 out of 43 or whatever you just said. That’s awfully, awfully good."
Murray State starter Ryan Fender, one of five pitchers for the Racers, took the loss. He worked 2.2 innings, gave up three hits, two runs and walked a pair while striking out one.
Arkansas (9-2) will host UCA (7-6) on Tuesday at 3 p.m. and can be seen on the SEC Network+. UCA has lost to LSU 2-0 and 4-3 on the season.
