FAYETTEVILLE — Hawaii beat up on Mississippi this weekend at Baum-Walker Stadium.
The No. 1-ranked University of Arkansas baseball team’s Hawaiian connection — sophomore shortstop Wehiwa Aloy and freshman designated hitter Nolan Souza — drove in more runs than Ole Miss in a three-game sweep of the Rebels.
Souza, from Honolulu on the island Oahu, hit two home runs and had five RBI to lead the Razorbacks to a 7-4 victory on Saturday in front of an announced crowd of 11,184.
Aloy, from Wailuku on the island of Maui, hit two home runs — one each — when Arkansas beat Ole Miss 5-2 on Thursday night and 8-3 on Friday night and had six RBI.
For the series, Aloy and Souza combined for 11 RBI compared to 9 for the Rebels.
Aloy was 2 for 4 Saturday to go 5 for 11 for the weekend. Souza was 6 for 11 on the weekend and 3 for 5 on Saturday.
“Well, that’s pretty good,” Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn said. “[People] keep bringing up this Hawaiian thing, but it’s just good to see guys that will commit, and go so far away from home and learn to adapt and get comfortable.
“Teammates love them. Just happy for both of those guys.”
Souza, a second baseman when he plays in the field, hit two home runs for the second time this season. He also hit two home runs in Arkansas’ 8-0 victory over Missouri on March 15.
For the season Souza is batting a team-high .357 in 20 games, including 18 starts, with 6 home runs, 3 doubles and 18 RBI.
Souza’s play has been a pleasant surprise after he struggled in fall practice.
“You could see it every now and again in the fall,” Van Horn said. “But you just thought, ‘Maybe it’s a little far off. Maybe it’s going to be his sophomore year. He’ll get better this year.’
“Then after the holidays we thought, ‘This guy’s really made a move.’ Sometimes the move is more mental. He was excited about the season, and he went back home for the holidays and stayed in great shape and came back in here and he looked like he was going to get an opportunity to play some. We just didn’t know where.
“And then the first time we put him in a game, he looked like a polished hitter. I mean, he looked great.”
Souza went 1 for 4 in his first game with a double in James Madison’s 7-3 victory over Arkansas on Feb. 18 — which remains the Razorbacks only home loss.
“We thought, ‘Hey, this guy is going to help us,’ ” Van Horn said. “So we kept going and obviously he’s turned into a starter. So good for him.”
Souza’s three-run home run in the seventh inning off Connor Spencer gave Arkansas a 6-3 lead. He fouled off three consecutive pitches, then drove a 1-2 fastball over the right-field fence that bounced off the scoreboard and was measured at 416 feet by TrackMan.
“Souza hit the home run against a 30-mile an hour wind,” Van Horn said. “Very rarely are you going to see that where you know when it leaves the bat it’s out of the park when the wind’s blowing that hard.
“He hung in there and laid off a few borderline pitches and got him a fastball he could handle, and he handled it about as good as you can.
“That was a big swing.”
Souza said he was “trying to stay on a fastball” from Spencer.
“That was what he was pretty much throwing to everybody, so I was trying to stay on time for it,” Souza said. “I felt he would probably go outer half later in the count because he hadn’t shown it to me to start my at-bat.
“He kept coming in, so I was just doing my best to get my hands to it and foul it off and then he left one over the plate a little more and I just put a good swing on it.”
Van Horn said he kept thinking Spencer, a right-hander, would throw a slider to the left-handed hitting Souza.
“But he must not have a lot of confidence with it to the lefties,” Van Horn said. “He tried to throw a fastball by him.
“I think the pitcher may have gotten a little frustrated and said, ‘I’m going to go right at you.’ ”
Souza’s first home was a 404-foot solo shot — that also bounced off the scoreboard — against Ole Miss starter Mason Nichols and tied the score 1-1 in the fourth inning.
In the fifth inning Souza hit an RBI single off Brayden Jones to beat a shift to the right side and went through the spot vacated by shortstop Brayden Randle to tie it 3-3.
“I think today was a really good win,” Souza said. “We fought as a team on both sides of the ball.
“It was pretty tricky with the wind on defense on both sides. I think we just did a really good job of battling, getting guys on base and cashing in when we had the opportunity.”
Arkansas starting pitcher Brady Tygart, who was resting at home for Friday night’s game because he was ill, went 4 1/3 innings and had 7 strikeouts. He allowed 4 hits, 2 runs and 3 walks.
The Razorbacks also used Jake Faherty, Parker Coil, Gabe Gaeckle and Will McEntire out of the bullpen. Gaeckle matched a season-high going 2 2/3 innings and McEntire got the final two outs. He struck out Jackson Ross to end the game with two runners on base.
The Razorbacks (27-3, 11-1 SEC) won their eighth consecutive game and extended their home winning streak to 21 games.
Ole Miss (18-15, 3-9) lost its seventh consecutive game.
“We came out and played hard,” Van Horn said. “We were down, we’re tied, we’re up, we’re down. Just back and forth.”
Souza finally put the Razorbacks ahead for good with his sixth home run of the season.
“I think it was good for me to go home and reset after the fall,” Souza said. “I knew there had to be a change after the way my fall went.
“I felt like sometimes at the plate, I just wasn’t as confident in what kind of hitter I was.”
Souza said assistant coaches Nate Thompson and Bobby Wernes helped restore his confidence.
“They told me, ‘You’ve just got to know that you’re a good hitter and you need to trust yourself out there,’ ” Souza said. “Just listening to what they have to say and taking that into the game is what I think has brought me some success.”
Aloy, a transfer from Sacramento State, is batting .295 with team-highs of 8 home runs and 32 RBI.
“Wehiwa did really, really good this weekend,” Souza said. “Super happy to see it for him. Just happy that I could join him with some home runs today.”