The No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks (27-3, 8-1 SEC) earned a 7-4 win Tuesday evening over the Grambling State Tigers (10-17, 6-3 SWAC) at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
Sophomore starting right-handed pitcher Tate McGuire was solid in his first start, as he completed 4.0 innings with four strikeouts, two walks, one hit and one earned run.
Three pitchers combined for four innings of relief out of the bullpen, and they combined for seven punchouts, two walks, five hits and three earned runs.
Three Razorbacks at the top of the lineup — Charles Davalan and Wehiwa and Kuhio Aloy — each notched two hits in the game. As a team, the Razorbacks finished 7-for-29 at the plate, 0-for-8 with two outs, 4-for-12 with runners on base and 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
An inward wind at Dickey-Stephens Park meant that balls had to be muscled to escape, but that didn't matter much for Arkansas right-hander Tate McGuire to start things off. The sophomore struck out one Tiger in a hitless top of the first.
The Razorbacks took a 1-0 lead against Grambling starter Nick Robinson in the bottom of the first thanks to a sac-fly by Brent Iredale. Both Aloy brothers reached base via singles and Carson Boles walked.
After both pitchers faced the minimum in the second inning, McGuire ran into some trouble to start the third. A leadoff double eventually came around to score to tie the game, 1-1.
Charles Davalan matched with his own extra-base hit, his frist triple of the season, to begin the bottom of the third. Wehiwa Aloy drove Davalan in with a single to take a 2-1 lead. The Hogs added three more runs on a Boles two-RBI single and a wild pitch to go up 5-1.
It wasn't easy, but McGuire worked around two full-count walks to finish off another hitless frame in the top of the fourth. That concluded his day, as left-hander Colin Fisher took the mound for the Hogs in the top of the fifth.
The southpaw let one run come across on a fielder's choice groundout following back-to-back leadoff singles, but Fisher stranded two runners with a popup.
In the bottom of the fifth, Arkansas found itself with two runners on base and two outs after a Zane Becker hit-by-pitch and Michael Anderson walk. However, the inning ended after Kendall Diggs' third strikeout of the day.
Right-hander Dylan Carter handled things in the top of the sixth, and despite allowing two Tigers to get into scoring position, he escaped without any runs scoring. Arkansas increased its lead to 7-2 in the bottom half of the inning behind two base hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch off of Grambling lefty Thomas Leiden.
A leadoff walk by Carter in the top of the seventh came around to score, as after a flyout and strikeout, Grambling drove a ball over Arkansas' shallow outfield for an RBI double. The Tigers got another run before the frame ended to make it 7-4, Hogs.
Freshman lefty Cole Gibler was called upon in the top of the eighth and quickly impressed with a three-pitch strikeout on his first ...
