FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – No. 6 Arkansas had three innings with four-plus runs and cruised to a 15-3 victory over No. 18 Tennessee on Saturday night at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Razorbacks’ starter Patrick Wicklander was dominant through five innings, allowing just one hit before having his shutout bid broken up in the sixth inning. The freshman left hander gave up two runs on four hits and struck out seven in 5.2 innings to improve to 4-1 on the year.
On the other hand, UT starter Garrett Stallings did not have a good night and was chased after just 3.2 innings, his shortest outing of the season. The Vols’ junior ace gave up a season-high eight runs on 10 hits to fall to 7-3 on the year.
Five Arkansas’ players recorded multi-hit games while Casey Martin and Heston Kjerstad both homered and drove in five runs apiece.
Freshman Christian Scott was the only Vol to record multiple hits on the night after entering the game in the seventh inning as a pinch hitter. Alerick Soularie, Evan Russell and Zach Daniels each had an RBI on the night for Tennessee.
After two solid innings by Stallings to begin the game, the Razorbacks started the bottom of the third inning with a leadoff home run by Jordan McFarland to open the scoring. The Hogs followed with a double and a bunt single before another homer by Martin made it 4-0.
Arkansas struck for four more runs in the fourth to bust the game wide open. The Razorbacks has six hits in the inning and sent all nine batters to the plate.
The Vols broke up the shutout bid with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth. Jay Charleston led off the inning with a single to right field and stole second base before advancing to third on a ground out. Soularie drove him in with a two-out double to left field and came around to score on a single by Russell one batter later. For Russell, it was his team-leading fifth run batted in of the series.
The Hogs quickly got one of those runs back with a leadoff solo home run by Kjerstad in the bottom of the sixth. Kjerstad hit another home run in the seventh to cap a five-run inning and put Arkansas ahead 14-2.
Daniels hit his third home run of the season to lead off the eighth inning, blasting one off the video board in right-center field to score Tennessee’s third and final run of the night. The Hogs added one more run in the eighth to cap the scoring.
NOTABLE
SCOTT MAKES MOST OF OPPORTUNITY: Tennessee true freshman Christian Scott made the most of his opportunity in Saturday night’s loss. The Clarksville, Tennessee native went 2-for-2 with a single and a double to record the second multi-hit game of his collegiate career.
UP NEXT: The Big Orange will look to salvage a game in tomorrow’s series finale, which will be televised live on the SEC Network at 5 p.m. ET. Fans can also listen live as John Wilkerson call the action for the Vol Radio Network (FM 99.1/AM 990).
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