FAYETTEVILLE -- The longest in-season home winning streak in University of Arkansas baseball history now belongs to the No. 1-ranked 2024 team.
The Razorbacks rallied from an early deficit, powered by a big second inning and home runs from Ben McLaughlin and Wehiwa Aloy to subdue San Jose State 5-1 on Tuesday night for their 22nd consecutive home win before an announced crowd of 8,931 at Baum-Walker Stadium.
"Hopefully we can keep it going," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. "These guys show up and they play. If we pitch good and we field the ball pretty good, it's been a good combination."
This season's Razorbacks (28-3) had been tied with the 1985 and 1989 teams with 21 consecutive in-season wins. Arkansas will go for a sweep in the two-game series today at 1 p.m., with the first-pitch time moved up from 3 p.m. due to potential weather concerns.
Ben Bybee (2-0) allowed his first run of the season on a solo home run but was sharp otherwise. The 6-6 right-hander allowed only 1 other hit, tied his career-high by working 5 innings, had no walks and struck out 4.
"I felt like every inning I was out there I just kind of got more comfortable, just kind of more dialed in," Bybee said. "It felt really good to get some innings under my belt.
"Honestly, all my pitches were working tonight even through the fifth. I feel like it wasn't until probably the third inning where I felt like I was really confident in my changeup. That was what I kind of started throwing a lot of in the fourth and the fifth."
Bybee threw an efficient 55 pitches and held his ERA at 1.00 through his first nine innings of the season.
The Spartans (12-20) did not get a hit against Arkansas relievers Christian Foutch, Gage Wood, Hunter Dietz and Stone Hewlett.
"They are obviously the No. 1 team in the country and we saw some high-level arms, and up and down their lineup they've got high-level baseball players," San Jose State Coach Brad Sanfilippo said.
"I liked our effort. I like our compete. We did some really good things, but we have to do a better job of creating baserunners, grinding some at-bats and just come back and play with the energy and effort we had today."
The Razorbacks have now thrown a one- or two- hitter in each of their past three midweek games in wins over Arkansas-Little Rock (11-0), Arkansas State (13-0) and now the Spartans.
"Four guys threw in the pen today, probably the same thing tomorrow, too," Foutch said. "It's just a lot nicer because you don't have to use guys like [Will] McEntire or anything to help you through a midweek game and you're just able to throw everybody and get their innings."
Van Horn gave Nolan Souza his first start at third base, Peyton Holt a start in right field for Kendall Diggs, Jayson Jones a start in left field and Hudson Polk a turn at designated hitter.
Souza delivered a two-out, two-run double in the second inning, drew three walks and bumped his batting average to .362. Holt went 1 for 3 with a single and a walk, Jones had a single and two walks, and Polk went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.
San Jose State struck first in the second inning when catcher Matt Spear hit a titanic 442-foot home run over the right-field wall off Bybee.
The Razorbacks fell behind for the fourth consecutive game, but like they did in the others against Ole Miss last weekend, they rallied quickly.
Arkansas scored three runs in the bottom of the second inning off right-hander Keaton Chase (1-1). Jones started the action with a one-out walk and he moved up when Will Edmunson drew a two-out walk in the nine hole.
Leadoff man Peyton Stovall followed with a hard-hit single to left field to tie the game at 1-1. Souza, the reigning SEC freshman of the week, cranked a double into the gap in right-center field, easily scoring Edmunson to give Arkansas the lead. Stovall also chugged around and slid head first into home and was called safe by home plate umpire Chris Coskey.
Sanfilippo asked for a review and the call was upheld on replay to make it 3-1.
"It was a pretty long at-bat," Souza said. "I was trying to fight off pitches. They weren't really ones that I could get a real good swing on. I think I hooked a couple down the line. I was just sitting there waiting for him to throw me one that looked good, and he did. I just put a good swing on it."
McLaughlin extended the lead to 4-1 in the third inning with a solo home run to right field, his fifth of the season.
Aloy's opposite-field home run, his team-high ninth, went 407 feet off the Hunt Center beyond the right-field fence.
"He's hitting the ball extremely hard the other way, as you saw the one he hit off my window," Van Horn said. "I mean, that was beautiful."