No. 3 Arkansas (21-2, 3-1 SEC) pummeled the South Carolina Gamecocks (17-6, 1-3 SEC), 12-2, in its Southeastern Conference home opener on Friday night at Baum-Walker Stadium while also picking up its 500th SEC victory in school history. The Razorbacks have now run-ruled their opponents eight times this season.
Arkansas baseball vs South Carolina: Game one
Arkansas struck first in the bottom of the second inning with 1B Camden Kozeal leading off with a double to left field. With two outs, CF Justin Thomas Jr. sliced a single to left to bring Kozeal home and give the Hogs a 1-0 lead.
The Razorbacks plated four runs in the bottom half of the third on just one hit to extend their lead to five. LF Charles Davalan led off with a double to left field while RF Logan Maxwell was hit by a pitch with one out and DH Kuhio Aloy drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases. 3B Brent Iredale and C Ryder Helfrick each plated a run on an RBI walk with two outs. Iredale and Aloy both scored from second and third after 2B Nolan Souza reached on a fielding error at short to hand Arkansas a comfortable 5-0 lead.
South Carolina RHP Brandon Stone was relieved by LHP Madison Becker to begin the bottom of the fourth, and Davalan welcomed him into the game with a leadoff single. Maxwell lifted a two-run home run to right field with one out for his sixth of the season to put the Razorbacks up by a touchdown.
The Gamecocks managed to come across their first run of the game in the top of the fifth to cut the deficit to six. RF Dalton Mashore drew a one-out walk and moved over to third after C Talmadge LeCroy stroked a double to right center. 2B Jordan Carrion scored Mashore on an RBI groundout to short to give South Carolina some life. LHP Zach Root went on to force SS Will Tippett to fly out and end the frame.
The Gamecocks picked up another run in the top of the sixth to cut the lead to five after CF Nathan Hall led off with a single to right field. 3B KJ Scobey rifled a double down the left field line to put runners in scoring position, and Hall scored on a wild pitch later to cut into the Razorbacks’ lead, 7-2.
Arkansas put the game away in the bottom of the seventh with a five-run rally to pick up the run-rule victory. Kozeal and Helfrick led off with back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners, and Thomas barreled an RBI double with one out to punch in Kozeal to push the lead back to six. Becker was relieved by LHP Aydin Palmer with runners in scoring position and gave up an RBI single to Davalan. Wehiwa Aloy stepped in and clobbered a three-run homer to right field for the run-rule walk-off for his 10th dinger of the year.
LHP Zach Root pitched in all seven innings for his first career complete game for his third win of the season. He struck out seven batters while allowing two runs, six hits and a walk on 92 pitches (61 strikes) against 27 batters faced.
The Razorbacks and the Gamecocks will meet for the second game of the three-game series on Saturday at Baum-Walker Stadium. The first pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. and will be streamed on SEC Network+.