FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas’ bullpen looked like its old self Sunday at Baum Stadium.
Relievers Landon Simpson, Trent Daniel and Colby Suggs held Texas A&M scoreless on one hit over the last three innings in support of starter Randall Fant as the No. 12 Razorbacks held on to beat the Aggies 2-1 before an announced crowd of 6,284.
“Friday night was a fluke,” Arkansas catcher Jake Wise said of the bullpen. “ They’ve been nails all year long. They don’t blow leads.”
But the Arkansas bullpen, which came into the Texas A&M series with a combined 1.19 ERA, blew a three-run lead Friday night when the Aggies rallied to win 5-3 on Jonathan Moroney’s eight-inning grand slam.
“Friday’s game was a heart breaker,” Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn said. “We felt like we had that in hand leading 3-0. … Then we let it slip away.”
Van Horn said he stressed to the Razorbacks after Friday’s loss they could still take the series, which Arkansas did - winning 12-2 Saturday night and getting just enough offense to win Sunday.
Brian Anderson drove in both of the Razorbacks’ runs. He singled in Tyler Spoon in the first inning and had a sacrifice fly in the third that scored Brett McAfee.
The Razorbacks (27-15, 11-7 SEC) won back-to-back games for the first time in two weeks, since they took the first two games of a series at Alabama.
“It went down to the wire,” Van Horn said. “I just feel fortunate to win it.”
Suggs retired the Aggies (22-19, 7-11) in order in the ninth for his fifth save, all in SEC games since he came back from an oblique injury. He got Hunter Melton on a fly out, then struck out Troy Stein and Mitchell Nau swinging on 0-2 pitches.
“I thought Suggs was as good as he’s been all year,” Van Horn said. “I don’t know what his velocity was, and I’m not real concerned about it.
“He was spotting up his fastball, he threw his breaking ball in there, and then they had to think about that a little bit.”
A&M scored when Stein hit a home run off Fant (3-1) leading off the second inning to tie the game 1-1. Fant, a senior left-hander, then retired nine consecutive batters, including six on strikeouts, as the Razorbacks regained the lead.
Fant had a career-high eight strikeouts before being replaced by Simpson in the seventh inning after Stein’s leadoff single.
Fant allowed two hits and three walks.
“I thought Randall Fant did a tremendous job,” Van Horn said. “We were just hoping to get four or five innings out of him. We felt like we had some pretty good guys ready to go in the bullpen.
“It seemed like after he gave up the home run to Stein, he just turned it up a notch. He really started using his fastball in, spotting it up, and then it seemed like that made his change up just that much better.”
Fant didn’t last past the third inning in his two previous starts against Alabama and LSU when he allowed a combined eight hits and five earned runs.
“I don’t know if that was one of the best or not,” Fant said when asked if Sunday’s performance ranked among the best of his career. “I wanted to have a quality start after my last two weren’t very good and help our team win the series.”
Wise made a key defensive play in the first inning when he threw out Blake Allemand trying to steal third base with one out.
Melton, who was hitting on the play, accidentally struck Wise’s right hand with the bat on his swing. Wise laid on the ground in pain for a few minutes, but stayed in the game.
“It’s big to have him in there,” Van Horn said. “He’s running the ship for the most part. A lot of times he’s calling the pitches on his own because he’s got a good feel for what’s going on.”
Wise said after the game his hand still was bothering him.
“It hurts, but that’s just part of it,” Wise said. “I wanted to stay in.”
The Razorbacks had 11 hits Sunday and left nine runners on base.
“I thought we did a really good job of setting up innings,” Van Horn said. “We just didn’t finish them off. Give credit to Texas A&M’s pitchers. They did a good job of getting out of some jams.”
“We should have punched in a couple more runs. It would have been a little easier there at the end of the game.”
Van Horn said he’s happy with the way the Razorbacks are swinging the bats, noting they struck out just three times Sunday.
“We just didn’t get the big hit,” Van Horn said. “We got a bunch of hits yesterday [Saturday], and a lot of times that’s what happens in this game.
“It’s just crazy the way it works. You wish you could save some runs for the next day.”
Up next
ARKANSAS VS OKLAHOMA
WHEN 6:35 p.m. Tuesday WHERE Baum Stadium, Fayetteville RECORDS Arkansas 27-15; Oklahoma 32-10 RADIO Razorbacks Sports Network, which includes KQSM-FM 92.1 in Fayetteville; KURM-AM 790 in Bentonville-Rogers; KABZ-FM 103.7 in Little Rock; KASR-FM 92.7, in Conway;
KHGG-FM, 103.1, in Fort Smith; KELDFM, 106.5, in El Dorado, and KOMT-FM, 107.5, in Mountain Home. Not all games will be carried by affiliates. Check local listings.
INTERNET arkansasrazorbacks.com PITCHING MATCHUP TBA
SHORT HOPS Arkansas improved to 5-2 in one-run games with its 2-1 victory over Texas A&M. … The Razorbacks have won four of SEC six series this season. … Dominic Ficociello had Arkansas’ only extra-base hit Sunday with an eighth-inning double. He was left stranded at third base. … Arkansas is 31-36 all-time against Texas A&M, including 13-17 in Fayetteville.
THE WEEK AHEAD
TODAY Off TUESDAY vs Oklahoma 6:35 p.m.
WEDNESDAY Off THURSDAY Off FRIDAY at Georgia 6:30 p.m.
SATURDAY at Georgia 11 a.m.
SUNDAY at Georgia 1 p.m.
MONDAY Off
SUNDAY’S GAMES
Arkansas 2, Texas A&M 1 Missouri 8, Florida 2 South Carolina 3, Kentucky 1 Alabama 4, LSU 3 Mississippi 4, Tennessee 3 Vanderbilt 5, Georgia 1
Sports, Pages 13 on 04/22/2013