FAYETTEVILLE -- Peyton Stovall had a four-hit game and the No. 1 Arkansas baseball team put away San Jose State late in an 8-2 win Wednesday to post a midweek sweep and extend its school-record in-season home winning streak to 23 games.
The University of Arkansas (29-3) improved to 25-1 at home and capped a 10-0 homestand before an announced crowd of 8,617 at Baum-Walker Stadium that was actually considerably smaller as mist and rain built up throughout the chilly afternoon.
Arkansas broke through with four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning after San Jose State (12-21) had closed to within 4-2 in the top of the inning. Prior to that, the Hogs had left seven runners in scoring position through six innings and finished with 11 left on base.
"I'm going to be positive with it: We did a great job of getting on base," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. "We drove in eight runs, but you take a step back and on a really good day we could have maybe scored 14 or 15 runs.
"So maybe we're saving those for the weekend or down the road. But I do like the way that we fight and get pitch counts up and we take a walk, get hit by a pitch, whatever. But we were a few big hits away from blowing the thing open and we didn't really do that."
The game featured a drive-by from a procession of UA vehicles on Razorback Road that included new men's basketball Coach John Calipari, who landed at Drake Field south of the stadium during the middle innings. Fans at Baum-Walker gave the string of vehicles an ovation.
Stovall had three singles, a double and a sacrifice fly to lift his batting average to .377, tops on the team. Stovall has reached base in all 20 games and a hit in 17 since returning from a broken bone in his foot. The Razorbacks improved to 19-1 with Stovall in the lineup this season.
"I'm still mad at the game we lost when he was in there," Van Horn said with a chuckle. "No, he's done a great job. Like I said, he changes the dynamics of our lineup. You've got a left-handed bat. You've got some power. You've got a guy that can hit for average, run the bases, can drive runs in.
"The second, third, fourth time around, kind of a spark plug there. We're playing well, and he's really contributed to it."
Stovall said midweek games are a different beast than a weekend league series.
"One hundred percent," Stovall said. "It's actually something that I've dealt with, just trying to do too much, trying to overswing. I felt like I kind of did that [Tuesday] night.
"Today during the game, I just wanted to stay within my approach and just keep things up the middle and stay confident. For sure man, it's an ongoing battle between your ears. If you are able to just kind of clear that, it'll take care of itself."
Nolan Souza started at third base for the second game in a row and had his second two-run double against the Spartans.
Arkansas used five pitchers, with left-handed starter Colin Fisher (6-1), Koty Frank and Parker Coil working more than one inning, and Jake Faherty and Cooper Dossett pitching an inning each.
The Spartans had only one hit before the seventh inning. Theo Hardy greeted Coil with a single as he reached base on his first three plate appearances, then Matt Spear cranked a two-run home run to right field to make it 4-2. Home runs by Spear accounted for all three San Jose State runs in the series, including Arkansas' 5-1 win Tuesday night.
The Razorbacks put together a big bottom of the seventh inning, started by Jack Wagner's 413-foot home run, his third off the season, off Cade Cushing.
After Ross Lovich was hit by a pitch and Will Edmunson singled, Parker Rowland moved the runners up with a bunt. Stovall delivered an infield single to drive in a run. Then Ben McLaughlin hit an RBI double and Wehiwa Aloy provided a sacrifice fly to cap the four-run inning and set the final score.
"I really liked the way we kind of punched back there when they hit the two-run homer off Coil," Van Horn said. "All of a sudden it's 4-2 and ... it's tight again. The wind's blowing out. You never know what can happen."
Fisher pitched out of a tight spot in the second inning after Hardy reached on a one-out walk. Fisher balked him to second base and Spear's fly ball to deep center sent him to third. Zach Griffin worked a 12-pitch walk that featured five consecutive foul balls with two strikes to put two on base.
Fisher quickly got ahead of catcher Jake Maroney 0-2, threw one ball then struck him out looking with a back-door breaking pitch.
Arkansas got the scoring going in the bottom of the second, which opened with consecutive singles by Wagner, Lovich and Edmunson against right-hander Tyler Alabanese (1-1).
Wagner appeared to get a bad read on Edmunson's looping single to center field and only made it to third. That became a moot point with Peyton Stovall's one-out sacrifice fly to deep right field for the opening run. Ben McLaughlin followed with a run-scoring single to right to make it 2-0.
San Jose State's first hit came on a bizarre hop in the dirt off the bat of Hardy near the first base bag in the third inning. McLaughlin, Arkansas' first baseman, appeared to have the routine ground ball measured until it took a huge hop over his head into right field for a one-out double.
The game ended just a few minutes before lightning was detected within eight miles of the stadium, making the move to a first pitch at 1 p.m., two hours earlier than scheduled, a smart one.
"Just glad we got the game in," Van Horn said. " It allowed us to get it in and get some work, then we obviously won the game. That was big."
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Up next
NO. 1 ARKANSAS AT ALABAMA
WHEN 6 p.m. Central on Friday
WHERE Sewell-Thomas Stadium,
Tuscaloosa, Ala.
RECORDS Arkansas 29-3, 11-1 SEC; Alabama 22-11, 4-8
TV None
RADIO Razorback Sports Network
STREAMING SEC Network-Plus
