Dogs show bite
against Hogs
In a
week of ups and downs, the Diamond Hogs continued to display strong pitching
and were stricken again by the lack of offensive production. It is almost feeling like a broken record
week in and week out, and Arkansas will need to muster up enough of something to
get it going this week. They will play 5
games in 5 days, all at home, against Nebraska and No. 2 South Carolina. We are smack in the middle of a gauntlet of a
stretch that will see the Razorbacks play 4 top 10 teams in consecutive weekends: Mississippi State, South Carolina, LSU, and
Vanderbilt.
Arkansas
started last week with a lot of momentum coming off a series win against
Alabama by sweeping Mississippi Valley State in a 3 game series and winning the
first game of the weekend in Starkville before losing the series. The Hogs’ pitching staff put together a most
impressive run by allowing only 2 runs in 54.2 consecutive innings, including 4
shutouts in 5 games, dating back to the finale against Alabama.
The
Hogs posted a 1.80 ERA over the 6 game set, giving up only 41 hits in 50
innings while walking 11 and striking out 39.
Jalen Beeks, Alex Phillips and Colin Poche all had scoreless outings in
starting appearances to get the win. Phillips
was most effective, striking out 7 in 6 innings of work while Poche had 6 K in
5.1 innings. Beeks pitched around jams,
using his defense to help him often while allowing 9 hits in 8 innings and
striking out 1. James Teague also looked
sharp in his first career start going 4 innings of 1 run ball and striking out
4 to get the win.
The
bullpen was near faultless again with the exception of Zach Jackson who
struggled for the second week in a row.
Dave Van Horn has been able to rely on Jackson as his go to reliever
when times get tough but it looks as if another arm will be getting a shot in
the future. The rest of the bullpen
threw 13.1 shutout innings, allowing only 7 hits and 2 walks while striking out
15.
Offensively
the Hogs hit .255 as a team and were led by Joe Serrano who finally looked back
to form after a brief stint on the injury list.
Serrano hit .429 (9 for 21) with a double, 2 RBI and 2 stolen bases in
as many attempts. Bobby Wernes continues
to hit and has solidified his spot at third with more dazzling plays. He posted a .389 average with 7 hits and 2
RBI while leading the team with a .522 on base percentage. Brian Anderson was the big run producer of
the week hitting .320 with a double, inside the park home run, and 8 RBI to
lead the team. Andrew Benintendi has
been an off and on hitter so far this year but continues to get on base
regularly in the leadoff spot. He had 6
hits in 6 games, including a double and 3 RBI and was also walked twice and hit
4 times. Eric Fisher kept his bat going
with 3 doubles in 6 hits and 4 RBI.
So far
this season has been a predictable one.
The pitching is going to carry the team to victories as long as they can
score 3-4 runs per game. This seems to
be the M.O. for the Razorbacks for several years now and it is not much
different across the nation. The good
news is the SEC is very wide open right now with each team within 3 games of
each other after 3 weeks of play. It is
still very much anybody’s championship to take and Arkansas has just as good a
chance as any with their deep, skilled pitching staff. Teams have been able to win before with
streaky hitting and hopefully the Hogs can get that streak on the upward climb
soon heading into the heart of conference play.
No comments:
Post a Comment