FAYETTEVILLE - Resiliency has served Arkansas well during SEC play, and that trait was on display again Saturday.
The Razorbacks bounced back from one of their worst losses of the season with an 11-1 rout of Tennessee before an announced crowd of 7,478 at Baum Stadium.
Right-hander Ryne Stanek (7-2) wasn’t sharp in the early innings, but he tied a season-high with 9 strikeouts and allowed 5 hits through 7 shutout innings to win his fifth consecutive decision and lower his earned run average in league games to 1.10.
Arkansas scored in all eight innings it batted, including two-run rallies in the fourth, sixth and eighth, and left fielder Brian Anderson went 4 for 4 with a two-run home run, 4 runs and 1 walk. Tennessee (20-27, 7-17 SEC) beat Arkansas 8-3 on Friday as the Hogs allowed their highest run total of the season.
“It was two different teams from yesterday to tonight,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said.
The victory gave Arkansas (33-17, 16-9) a 4-0 record on the day after dropping an SEC series opener. The combined score of those games is 41-7.
“Whenever we have lost on Friday, some have been tight heart breakers and a couple of games we just didn’t play very well,” Van Horn said. “Obviously we knew we had Stanek going the next day.The team knows you don’t have a chance to win the series if you don’t win the next day, and they’ve done a great job.”
“We just feel like the next day we get to play again, we’re going to have a good chance and we need to win a ball game,” Stanek said.
The Razorbacks scored single runs in each of the first three innings off Nick Williams (2-4), and Anderson launched his fourth home run to almost straightaway center field to make it 5-0 in the fourth in support of Stanek.
Anderson, batting in the No. 3 spot for the first time this season, walked in the first, singled in the third, homered in the fourth and tripled in the sixth. He batted in the eighth with a chance to hit for the cycle but ripped a liner off leaping shortstop Taylor Smart’s glove for another single and his second four-hit night this season.
“I was just seeing the ball well and swinging at pitches that were in the strike zone,” Anderson said. “It seemed to always find a gap today.”
The middle of the shuffled Razorbacks’ order delivered, with Anderson, Dominic Ficociello and Tyler Spoon combining to go 7 for 9 with5 RBI and 5 runs.
“More than anything I was just trying to move Spoon out of the three-hole and let him relax a little bit maybe,” Van Horn said, explaining Anderson’s move to third in the lineup. “Tyler had a tremendous night and hit the ball extremely hard. It paid off. It worked out, I guess.”
Stanek stranded six Vols runners through four innings as he struggled with control on his fastball, but he escaped two-on, one-out jams in the second and fourth with the aid of three strikeouts.
“Early in the game I really couldn’t throw my fastball for a strike,” Stanek said. “Everything was up, and then as soon as I got a little bit tired I started calming down and I was able to locate my fastball a little better. It got a lot better because I was able to throw my slider, curve ball and change-up for a strike today.”
Said Van Horn: “To me, his best innings were his last two, the sixth and seventh. … He really started commanding his fastball a little bit more in the later innings.”
Tennessee Coach Dave Serrano said the Volunteers didn’t capitalize early in the game when they had opportunities to score.
“Obviously Stanek is a really good pitcher, All-American-type stuff, first-round draft type stuff,” Serrano said. “But I thought early on he gave us a chance and we didn’t take advantage of it.
“Stanek made some big pitches when he had to. He had a good slider. His fastball command was marginal early, but he had a good slider and our guys weren’t seeing it. Tip your hat to him. He threw a quality game and we didn’t have a quality game.”
Tennessee broke up the Hogs’ shutout bid in the eighth off Landon Simpson. A.J. Simcox was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Vincent Jackson brought him in with a two-out double. Colin Poche, pitching for the first time since April 9, struck out three batters to finish up for the Razorbacks.
Arkansas scored in double figures for the fourth time in SEC play, and three of them have come after series-opening losses.
Senior left-hander Randall Fant (4-1, 2.27 ERA) will takethe ball for the Razorbacks in today’s 1:05 p.m. game against Tennessee freshman right-hander Aaron Quillen (2-3, 6.04).
SATURDAY’S GAMES Arkansas 11, Tennessee 1 South Carolina 7, Georgia 1 LSU 7-2, Texas A&M 4-1 Missouri 7, Alabama 3 Vanderbilt 11-5, Kentucky 3-3 Mississippi 3-10, Mississippi St. 0-8 Florida 5, Auburn 4 TODAY’S GAMES All times Central Missouri at Alabama, 11:30 a.m.
Auburn at Florida, noon Vanderbilt at Kentucky, noon Georgia at South Carolina, 12:30 p.m.
Tennessee at Arkansas, 1 p.m.
Mississippi State at Mississippi, 1 p.m.
Today’s game Tennessee at Arkansas WHEN 1:05 p.m.
WHERE Baum Stadium, Fayetteville RECORDS Arkansas 33-17, 16-9 SEC;
Tennessee 20-27, 7-17 TV Cox Sports Television RADIO Razorback Sports Network, which includes KABZ-FM, 103.7, Little Rock;
KQSM-FM, 92.1, Fayetteville; KURMAM, 790, Bentonville-Rogers; KASRFM, 92.7, Conway; KHGG-FM, 103.1, Fort Smith; KELD-FM, 106.5, El Dorado;
KOMT-FM, 107.5, Mountain Home. Not all games will be carried by affiliates.
Check local listings.
INTERNET www.arkansasrazorbacks.
com PITCHING MATCHUP Tennessee: Aaron Quillen (RHP, 2-3, 6.04); Arkansas: Randall Fant (LHP, 4-1, 2.27).
SHORT HOPS The Razorbacks scored in all eight innings Saturday. ... Arkansas is 4-0 in games after dropping the series opener in SEC play. ... Arkansas’ earned run average rose by 0.11 percentage points - to 1.88 - after allowing a season-high seven earned runs to Tennessee on Friday. .
THE WEEK AHEAD TODAY vs. Ole Miss, 1:05 p.m.
MONDAY off TUESDAY off WEDNESDAY off THURSDAY at Auburn, 6 p.m.
FRIDAY at Auburn, 6 p.m.
SATURDAY at Auburn, 1 p.m.
Sports, Pages 25 on 05/12/2013