Arkansas' Offense Comes to Life Without Team's Strongest Hitter

Plea for help finally amounts to some runs for Van Horn's Razorbacks in last SEC home series against Mississippi State

Arkansas Razorbacks' Wehiwa Aloy congratulates Hudson White after White's two-run homer Sunday afternoon at Baum-Walker Stadium. / Craven Whitlow-allHOGS Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Peyton Stovall went 1-for-13 this weekend against Mississippi State. Yet, the Arkansas Razorbacks scored 21 runs to take two out of three against the Bulldogs. It's the most runs the Razorbacks have scored in an SEC series since scoring 23 against Missouri to open conference play.

Perhaps more encouraging, they did it mostly without Peyton Stovall. He came into the weekend leading the team by 40 points in SEC play and frequently has been the only source of offense for the Hogs. Stovall's only hit of the weekend was a two-run homer in an 8-5 loss Saturday.

Hudson White now leads the team in SEC batting average after entering the weekend behind Stovall. His 5-for-12 weekend with two homers raised his average to .321 while Stovall's fell to .313. Wehiwa Aloy and Peyton Holt also had more than five hits on the weekend, Jared Sprague-Lott pitched in with four. A new face each night stepped up and contributed for the Razorbacks, something that really hadn't been done in an SEC series.

"They did it all weekend," Van Horn said about the bats. "It was really good to see. I know we only got eight hits. We hit a couple of balls hard but we hit three home runs on a day that you needed to hit it to dead left on over to get it out of the park with the wind, the way it was blowing."

White drove in four runs on Friday, Sprague-Lott and Aloy went a combined 6-for-8 on Saturday from the three and four spots in the lineup to trim a 8-0 deficit to 8-5. Holt had a three-hit day and the go-ahead home run in the sixth when Aloy and Stovall both went 0-for-4 at the plate.

The weekend could finally bring some stability to the lineup after a never-ending carousel. The Razorbacks have only submitted the same batting order in back-to-back games once this year and that was back in February.

Van Horn implored the Razorbacks just to go out and hit and it came at a perfect time. The 19 runs allowed by the pitching staff in the series are also the second most in a SEC weekend (behind Kentucky last weekend with 21).

As the pitching comes back to earth, the bats have also collectively begun to show their potential just in the nick of time as postseason play looms.

The Hogs' conclude the regular season with a three-game series against Texas A&M on the road. The series starts Thursday 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN2.

HOGS FEED:

• White sparks Arkansas' bats to life

• Arkansas storms back to snatch series from Mississippi State

• Razorback pitching suddenly has trouble finding the plate

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