No. 4 Arkansas wins back-and-forth affair against Charlotte to take the series

No. 4 Arkansas (9-1) bested the Charlotte 49ers (4-5) on Saturday afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium, 8-5, in a back-and-forth contest. The win clinches the series for the Razorbacks and improves their record to 7-0 at home.

Arkansas baseball vs Charlotte: Game 2

The top of the first inning started innocently until 3B Dawson Bryce reached on a double with one out. He was thrown out at third by LHP Zach Root on a comebacker off the bat of C Logan Poteet for the second out. Charlotte still managed to strike first with back-to-back RBI doubles by 1B Cody Gunderson and RF Noah Furcht to put the 49ers out in front, 2-0. Root struck out DH Thad Ector to end the inning.

Arkansas opened up the bottom of the second with back-to-back singles by 3B Brent Iredale and RF Kendall Diggs to put runners on the corners. DH Kuhio Aloy drove in Iredale with a double to left field for the Razorbacks’ first run of the game, but Diggs was thrown out at third base for the first out of the frame. 1B Camden Kozeal and 2B Nolan Souza both grounded out to stop the Hogs from capitalizing even more.

Maxwell uncorked a two-run home run to dead center in the bottom of the third with two outs to give Arkansas the lead, 3-2, for his second home run of the season. The ball traveled 410 feet with an exit velocity of 103 MPH.

Root was relieved by RHP Tate McGuire in the top of the sixth with one out and a runner on first. Bayne crushed a two-run bomb off the new pitcher to right field to give Charlotte the lead back, 4-3. McGuire retired the next two batters to prevent any further damage.

Root hurled 5.1 innings while allowing three runs, five hits and two walks with eight strikeouts on 97 pitches (64 strikes). The southpaw allowed three doubles and had not allowed an extra base hit in his first two starts.

The Hogs responded quickly in the bottom half of the sixth by loading the bases on back-to-back walks by Diggs and Aloy and a single by Kozeal. Souza plated Diggs on an RBI fielder’s choice to tie the contest, with Kozeal getting thrown out at second. C Ryder Helfrick laid down a sacrifice bunt that allowed Aloy to cross the plate from third to give Arkansas the lead back, 5-4. RHP Joseph Taylor forced CF Charles Davalan to ground out to second to end the Razorback rally.

RHP Aiden Jimenez relieved McGuire in the top of the seventh after he surrendered a leadoff walk to 2B Chandler Riley. Bryce reached on a single to right field, but Jimenez struck out the next two batters. Furcht singled up the middle on the first pitch he saw to tie the game again to cash in Riley from second base. Jimenez settled in and struck out Ector swinging.

SS Wehiwa Aloy led off the bottom of the seventh with a double to right field and moved to third on a ground out by Maxwell. Iredale gave Arkansas the lead back with a double down the right field line for his second RBI of the day, 6-5. After Diggs was retired for the second out, Kuhio Aloy cracked his fourth dinger of the season with a two-run blast to dead center to extend the lead to three.

RHP Carson Wiggins came out of the pen in the ninth and tossed a 1-2-3 inning to pick up his second save of the year. The Roland, Okla., native struck out two batters on 13 pitches (nine strikes) while lowering his ERA to 3.00.

The Razorbacks will finish up the three-game series against the 49ers on Sunday at noon in Baum-Walker Stadium. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.