Razorbacks Conquer Dukes Despite Ace Pitcher's Early Struggles

Hagen Smith's coronation to superb 2024 campaign started rocky but Hogs get win

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Despite an early bump in the road, Arkansas rode Will McEntire's 5 2/3 innings of relief to a season-opening 6-4 win over the James Madison Dukes.

"I think both teams played extremely well for as cold as it was down there," Van Horn said.  "Windy. Both teams fielded the ball pretty well, [and] handled it. Got to give the pitchers credit on both sides for throwing a lot of strikes."

The frigid temperatures led to a chilly start from Arkansas ace Hagen Smith. After much talk of improved command in the offseason, it was nowhere to be found in the first inning. James Madison made Smith throw 42 pitches in the opening inning as the first two Dukes got on base via a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Ferwick Trimble smacked a three-run homer over the right-center field wall to give the visitors an early 3-0 lead.

Smith's afternoon was over after just the first inning, but not before the Razorbacks responded with two runs thanks to some help from the elements. A can of corn fly ball to right field should have been two outs and no one on, but the wind allowed Diggs to reach on a fortuitous double. Ben McLaughlin and Peyton Holt smacked RBI singles to trim the lead to 3-2. 

James Madison's lead disappeared one batter into the second as third baseman Jared Sprague Lott, starting in place of the injured Peyton Stovall, opened the Hog season account for homers with a 43-degree launch angle moonshot over the left field fall. White followed with a solo homer to left two batters later as the Razorbacks had its first lead of the day 4-3.

Arkansas Razorbacks third baseman James Sprague-Lott crosses home plate after delivering a homer in the Hogs' season-opening 6-4 win over James Madison on Friday at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark :: Campbell Roberson / Arkansas Communications

Sprague-Lott's big day continued, a single in the third to right allowed two two-out runs to score, but got caught in a rundown for the third out of the inning in front of two walks and a double steal as the Hogs doubled up the Dukes 6-3. Both teams settled down, Sprague-Lott continued to shine with a running play up against the railing to end the fifth. 

"It was definitely a ton of fun to get out there with the rest of the guys," Sprague- Lott said. "The last two weeks, the coaching staff and all my teammates have done a lot to prepare me. It was just fun to be out there."

Trimble single-handily kept the Dukes in the game with a leadoff double to left-center to start the sixth, leaving him a triple shy of the cycle, and came around to score on two groundouts to make the score 6-4.

McEntire's efficient outing finally ended with two outs in the seventh, striking out six and throwing just 71 pitches. Gage Wood came in to strike out the final batter of the frame and take the two-run lead to the seventh-inning stretch.

" I did a pretty good job of keeping it down today," McEntire said. "Until then, I felt like I struggled a little a little bit. I’ve got to give credit to Huddy (Hudson White). We had a good gameplan just mixing pretty well and hitting spots."

The Razorbacks were unable to get insurance runs in the seventh and the eighth despite having two runners on both innings but did not come to grips. Gage Wood pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings to close the game and picked up the save.

The four-game series continues  2 p.m. Feb. 16 and will be streamed on SEC Network+.

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