Win Moves Arkansas Into First Place

FAYETTEVILLE - For a team three games below .500 entering last weekend, first place is a nice place for Arkansas.

The No. 16 Razorbacks beat Mississippi State 6-1 Saturday night at Baum Stadium for their eighth straight win. That, coupled with a pair of Alabama losses at Tennessee, moved Arkansas into a half-game lead for first place in the Southeastern Conference’s western division.

An announced crowd of 10,784 was in attendance for the game – the third-largest in stadium history. Arkansas has had three of its eight largest crowds all-time in the last eight days.

“Early in the SEC I think our inexperience kind of got to us,” Razorbacks catcher James McCann said. “We were in every ballgame, just couldn’t find the magic touch to win. Now that we’ve got that experience, I think guys are starting to grow up and we’re starting to mesh together as a team. Good teams put together big time winning streaks like we’re in the middle of. We just have to keep in going.”

The Razorbacks (26-8, 8-6 SEC) used a five-run third inning to break the game open. Kyle Robinson and Dominic Ficociello each had RBIs in the inning before Jake Wise’s three-run home run gave Arkansas a 6-0 lead.

“We put together a really good inning,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “That five-run inning is the best we’ve had in a while. We had a bunt for a hit, we had a home run, a hit-and-run. We did a lot of things right that inning and the home run came with two outs. It looked like it was going to be a good inning and it turned into a great inning with one swing.”

Like so many times throughout its winning streak, Arkansas got a big lift from its bullpen Saturday night. Freshman right-hander Barrett Astin struck out 10 batters in 3 1/3 innings of relief for starter Randall Fant, who left the game in the fifth inning.

Astin stranded two Bulldogs runners in each the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Mississippi State stranded 11 base-runners for the game.

“He was extremely impressive,” McCann said. “I don’t know if he can ever duplicate that outing ever again in his career, that’s something that’s not heard of too much. Ten strikeouts and 10 outs – that’s pretty good right there.”

Arkansas took a 1-0 lead on Jarrod McKinney’s RBI single to score Tim Carver in the bottom of the second inning. McKinney finished the game 2-for-3 at the plate and also reached on a hit-by-pitch.

McKinney’s sixth inning double was one of five extra-base hits for the Razorbacks.

“The only disappointing thing is we left a couple of guys out there, a couple lead-off doubles,” Van Horn said. “We’ve got to get those runs in somehow.”

Fant, who had a career outing last season against the Bulldogs, allowed five hits in 4 1/3 innings. The sophomore left-hander set the tone early, retiring eight batters before allowing a base hit.

“I thought Fant kind of ran out of gas,” Van Horn said. “He was leaving things up and they were starting to get on his change-up a little bit. He hardly threw any sliders at all, it was just fastball and change-up. Then I thought Barrett came in and just did an unbelievable job. I think he might have had 10 strikeouts, and McCann pointed out to me we didn’t field one ball one play; no fly balls, no ground balls – they were all strikeouts. He gave us a chance to get through those middle innings.”

Astin earned his fourth win of the year. Starter Nick Routt picked up the loss for the Bulldogs (21-14, 5-9).

The win was Arkansas’ first by more than one run in its last five games.

“It’s always good to come out and have a five-run lead; that’s what every pitcher dreams to have,” Astin said. “With a five-run lead there are more things you can do and I was able to throw some pitches that maybe I couldn’t get away with if we were up by one or two.”

The two teams will meet again at 1:05 p.m. Sunday in the series finale. Neither team has announced a starting pitcher.

You can follow Matt Jones on Twitter @NWAMatt.