Razorbacks Sweep Opening Day Doubleheader

Fayetteville, sheet. -no. 5 Arkansas (2-0) registered a walk-off victory on opening day for the first time since 2009 and swept its opening day double heads against Washington State (0-2) on a Friday at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Brent Iredale’s victim flies at the bottom of the 10th round in the game one of Friday’s doubleheader propelled Hogs to a 3-2 win over cougars in the season opener. Kuhio Aloys three-run Homer at the bottom of the seventh in the second game on today’s twin bill initiated the race rule and sent Arkansa’s home with a commanding 14-2 victory.

The opening weekend series continues tomorrow afternoon with the first pitch set at 1 p.m. 13 on SEC Network+. With a win, Arkansas can squeeze its 30-consecutive non-conference-limiting weekend series, a strip that goes back to the 2015 season.

Razorbacks have not lost or tied a non-conference regular seasonal weekend series on Baum-Walker Stadium since 2014, when Arkansas lost two-of-three matches to South Alabama in his last non-conference home-weekend series.

Game 1: Arkansas 3, Washington State 2 (10 Inn.)
Gabe Gaeckle started his first collegial start to the haug and fired a career-long five shutout-innings with career high seven strikes to help lead Arkansas to a Game One victory over Washington State. Aptos, California, allowed only one hit and issued only one walk and threw 51 of its 78 total seats for strikes during the opening day.

After Gaeckle left Ballgame, Cougars broke through for the first race of the day on a solo home ride in the sixth lap to take a run on one race. However, Razorbacks stopped back in the lower half of the frame on Logan Maxwell’s sacrificial fly and scored Charles Davalan from the third and evening Ballgame on a piece.

Arkansas and Washington State continued to exchange zeros until the game went to extra lap. In the top half of the 10th capitalized cougars on a couple of Razorback errors and ultimately scored the leading run to take a 2-1 lead.

Three consecutive walks to Arkansas hitters to begin the lower half of the 10th set the table to the heart of the set -up to deliver the last battle. After Ryder Helfrick scored the gaming bonding on a wild course, Iredale brought the victim fly to the left Justin Thomas Jr. Home from the third and sealed Razorbacks’ Come-FROM-Behind 3-2 wins in extra laps.

Game 2: Arkansas 14, Washington State 2 (7 Inn.)
Zach Root dominated in his debut in Arkansas and spun five laps of one-run ball with eight strikes to guide the pigs to a stress-free victory in the second game on Friday’s opening day doubleheader. The ECU transfer allowed a run on two hits and a walk, threw 52 of its 75 seats for strikes on the way to earning its first win of the season.

The Razorback violation, meanwhile, scored early and often with two races in the first, six races in the fourth and another six races over the game’s last three frames. Iredale recorded a team high three hits, including his first double in the season, and ran in a team leading four races, while Aloy and Davalan each gathered a few hits to go with three RBI.

Rocco Peppis RBI double at the bottom of the first one started offensive attack as Arkansas jumped out for an early two-run lead. Hogs’ six-race fourth was constructed at timely two-out frames, starting with Davalan’s RBI Single.

Iredale followed with a two-Rbi single of his own before Helfrick delivered haymaker as Razorback-Catcher tripled the line on the right, cleared the bases and gave Arkansas a commanding 8-1 advantage. Aloy provided knockout strokes with his three-run home driving at the bottom of the seventh to puncture Arkansas ’14 -2-run-Rule victory.

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