FAYETTEVILLE — Texas A&M rolled into Baum-Walker Stadium with a seven-game winning streak and now it's at eight following a 7-4 win over No. 2 Arkansas on Thursday night.
Texas A&M center fielder Jace LaViolette knocked in two runs and scored three more. He hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth to set the final margin of victory and give reliever Weston Moss a little insurance.
Texas A&M (22-15, 7-9) Coach Michael Earley was pleased to come into Fayetteville and get the win.
“Always good to get a win in SEC, especially in game one at what is just an extremely, extremely tough place to play,” Earley said. “I think it is just a really, really good team with unbelievable coaches. So any time you can get a win off a team like this, it is really good.”
A&M broke a 4-4 tie in the top of the fifth with two runs. Lead off back-to-back walks by Zach Root and then an error on third baseman Brent Iredale led to one run and then a fielder's choice saw another run score.
A&M scored a run in the top of the first, but then the Razorbacks answered with two in the bottom of the inning. Charles Davalan and Wehiwa Aloy each singled to start the inning. Logan Maxwell reached on a fielder's choice. Kuhio Aloy then doubled to plate Davalan. Cam Kozeal grounded out to second base allowing Maxwell to score for a 2-1 lead.
The Aggies added three more runs in the top of the second. LaViolette knocked in one run and a double by Wyatt Henseler plated another pair for a 4-2 lead.
That lead held up until the bottom of the third when Wehiwa Aloy blasted a two-run home run over the fence in right field to tie the game. Davalan had doubled to get on for Wehiwa Aloy.
Dylan Carter pitched 4.0 innings allowing just one hit and striking out four while not walking any Aggies. Zach Root (5-2) started and took the loss. He worked 4.0 innings, allowing seven hits and six runs. He walked three and struck out six with two wild pitches and hit one batter.
“Losing sucks,” Carter said. “Especially last weekend, the way we lost (two 7-6 games to Georgia), it really sucked. This league, the SEC, is really good. Every team is really good.
“A&M, give them credit, they got us tonight. And I think tomorrow we’re gonna come out, we’re gonna put our heads down and we’re just gonna go to work, we’re gonna play our style of ball, we’re gonna throw strikes, we’re gonna hit the baseball and we’re gonna try to win two.”
Dave Van Horn who saw his team drop its third SEC game in a row did praise Carter for the job he did as well as praise Moss (5-2) who picked up the win. Moss worked the final 5.0 innings allowing just three hits, no runs, one walk and struck out five Razorbacks.
“I thought Carter came in and did a great job,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “Really gave us an opportunity, you know, to score and get back in the game and we just never did. Give credit to their pitchers. I mean, (starter Ryan) Prager was good, but Weston Moss is their guy. They took a shot there in the fifth and brought him in.
“We had our shot to get to him and we couldn’t quite get that big hit. We had two innings against him where we had a couple guys on where we needed one more hit to at least score, and we couldn’t get it. That’s kind of the way I would assess. We didn’t get the hit when we needed it, and they did.”
Prager went 4.0 innings allowing six hits, all four Hog runs in the game, walked one and only struck out one. Earley had praise for Moss who dominated the Razorbacks while on the mound.
“Moss has been great for us out of the pen all year and we had good at bats,” Earley said. “Kept bringing guys to the plate, put balls in play when we needed to put them in play. I was pleased with our effort and our process tonight.”
Earley noted it was an easy choice to make the pitching switch as Prager was about to face the top of the Arkansas order a third time.
“It was a pretty easy decision just because of how he has been for us and has been super reliable for us and had a ton of big moments,” Earley said. “So with that loaded line up they’ve got, we wanted to pit our best arm out of the pen in there and he did an outstanding job.”
Van Horn has seen his starting pitching take its lumps at time in SEC play. Root's performance was no different.
“Average at best," Van Horn said. “You know, he walked a couple guys that really hurt. They fought him a little bit, but he just couldn’t, he didn’t put them away a couple of times and they got to a full count, think the ball (Henseler) hit the middle of the wall out there with two outs. That was a tough one, just about to get out of that and then couldn’t finish him off.”
Arkansas 11, Texas A&M 5
Ben Bybee (3.0 IP, 1 R, 4 SO) and Gabe Gaeckle (5.2 IP, 1 R, 8 SO) combined for 8.2 innings of two-run ball with 12 strikeouts in relief Gage Wood, who allowed three runs on three hits and a walk over 0.1 innings of work on the mound in his first outing since Feb. 23, to lead Arkansas to an 11-5 win against Texas A&M in game one of Friday’s twin bill.
Led by three-hit games from Wehiwa Aloy (3-for-5, HR, 2 RBI) and Kuhio Aloy (3-for-4, RBI), the Razorbacks evened the series at one game apiece with an 11-run outburst against the Aggies. Justin Thomas Jr. clobbered a pair of home runs, his first career multi-homer game, and finished with a team-leading three RBI, as did Brent Iredale (1-for-3, 2B, 3 RBI).
Wehiwa Aloy’s solo blast in the third was his fourth home run in as many games as well as his team-leading 15th of the season. The Razorback shortstop eclipsed his single-season career high of 14 homers, which he accomplished in both his 2023 and 2024 campaigns as a freshman at Sacramento State (14) and as a sophomore at Arkansas (14), respectively.
Gaeckle, meanwhile, made his first relief appearance of the season and earned the win to improve to 3-1. The right-hander matched his career highs in both innings pitched (5.2) and strikeouts (8) in his stellar outing on the mound.
Texas A&M 9, Arkansas 2
Texas A&M blitzed Arkansas in the rubber match with a pair of three-run innings late in the ballgame to pull out a 9-2 win in the nightcap of Friday’s doubleheader and secure the weekend series win. Jace LaViolette homered twice and finished with a game-high four runs scored and three RBI to power the Aggies past the Razorbacks in the series finale.
Landon Beidelschies, starting on short rest, turned in four innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts to put the Hogs in good position to secure its 13th consecutive SEC home weekend series win. The Razorback bullpen, however, would falter for seemingly the first time all season, allowing eight runs after the left-hander departed from the ballgame.
Despite multi-hit efforts from Charles Davalan (2-for-5), Wehiwa Aloy (2-for-5, 2B), Brent Iredale (2-for-4) and Ryder Helfrick (2-for-3, 2B), the Hogs could not capitalize on their opportunities. Arkansas left 10 runners on and went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position to seal its fate, snapping its streak of 12 consecutive SEC home weekend series wins.
