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Razorbacks Keep SEC Streak Alive with Extra-Inning Win over Vandy

Hogs keep rolling in conference play with seven straight victories

Daniel Shi

Arkansas first baseman Cam Kozeal (8) watches as he grounds out against Vanderbilt during the second inning at Hawkins Field in Nashville, Tenn.
Arkansas first baseman Cam Kozeal (8) watches as he grounds out against Vanderbilt during the second inning at Hawkins Field in Nashville, Tenn. / Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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NASHVILLE — Arkansas won its first series on the road against Vanderbilt since 2010 with a 6-4 win in 10 innings Saturday.

"Feel good winning the series here," coach Dave Van Horn said. "Have a chance to win all three at Vandy. I’ve never done that here with one of my teams. It’s tough to win a series, tough to win a game here. So hats off to the players. A lot of guys contributed."

With runners on the corners and one out in the 10th, third baseman Brent Iredale singled to right and broke a 3-3 tie. Iredale was just 4-for-25 in SEC play coming into the at-bat.

After watching Vanderbilt manufactuer all its runs, Arkansas scored on back-to-back bunts from first baseman Cam Kozeal and catcher Ryder Helfrick to provide some insuance.

Aiden Jimenez continues to deliver for the Hogs. Despite allowing his first run in the bottom of the tenth since Feb. 25 against Grambling, he pitched on back-to-back days for the first time. The righty pitched the final 3 1/3 and picked up his third win of the season.

Kozeal continues to torment his former team, hitting his third homer of the series. His two-run homer in front of an Iredale single gave the Hogs a 2-0 lead in the second.

The Vanderbilt transfer has tied the number of homers he's hit in a Razorback uniform than he did all of last year with the Commodores (5) in just 87 at-bats.

Gabe Gaeckle turned in his longest start of the season, striking out seven across 5 2/3 innings. It's the first time that he'd pitched into the fifth inning in an SEC game.

" I was commanding my fastball well," Gaeckle said. I don't know what the usage was, but I feel like I threw a lot of them today and they weren't proving they could hit it for a while."

Vanderbilt, after being shutout Friday, managed some traffic against Arkansas early but failed to break the seal until the fifth.

The Commodores came into the game third in the SEC in stolen bases (40) and last in homers (19) manufactured both of its runs. Vanderbilt took advantage of just Arkansas' second outfield error of the year, when Justin Thomas kicked a ball in center field on a single off the bat of Rustan Rigdon.

Thomas atoned for his error in the top of the seventh when he destroyed a ball into the left field seats in the top of seventh after Vanderbilt tied the game at two.

Vanderbilt responded with another run in the seventh without a benefit of a hit. A leadoff walk came around to score on a wild pitch off Carson Wiggins.

Van Horn opted to bring Wiggins out of the bullpen first, primarily an eighth and ninth inning guy, before turning it over to Jimenez.

Jimenez got some help with a sparkling defensive play from shortstop Wehiwa Aloy to lead off the ninth and prevent the go-ahead run from getting on base. It kept Vanderbilt from being able to continue to wreak havoc on the basepaths for a potential walk-off.

"If he doesn’t make that play they got a runner at first," Van Horn said. "They’re going to bunt him over and they’ve got the top of their order up with their best hitter. You can say that it saved the game. They might have walked us off the field, you never know what would have happened."

Arkansas goes for the sweep 1 p.m. Sunday on SEC+.

HOGS FEED:

• Among many questions for Razorbacks, running back one of biggest

• Arkansas among teams expected to get visit from one of portal's most coveted players

• Scouting Hogs' Newest Tight End Commitment Kade Bush

• Kozeal's big return to former team lifts Hogs over Commodores

• Razorbacks' big first inning sinks Kentucky; continues SEC momentum

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Daniel Shi
DANIEL SHI

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