Kjerstad, Reindl star in Razorbacks' walk-off

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas freshman left fielder's Heston Kjerstad's ninth-inning walk-off hit and relief pitching from junior Jake Reindl allowed the Razorbacks to sweep the Auburn Tigers Sunday at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville before 3,395 fans weathering a 47-degrees night.

The win moved coach Dave Van Horn's No. 3 Razorbacks (24-9, 8-4 Southeastern Conference) into first place in the SEC West. They will face Grambling State (16-16, 9-6 Southwestern Athletic Conference) at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.

Arkansas was mostly baffled by Auburn starter Todd Burns until he was relieved after throwing 94 pitches in six innings for a 4-2 lead. The Razorbacks tied it, 4-4, off reliever Calvin Coker in the seventh inning. Kjerstad ended the inning with a strikeout with a the bases loaded against lefty Andrew Mitchell.

It marked his third strikeout of the day. He was batting .381 going into the game.

Redshirt senior Carson Shaddy began the bottom of the ninth with a walk after an 0-2 count. Junior Jax Biggers' sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk to junior Eric Cole put two runners on. Pinch hitter Evan Lee struck out for the second out.

Kjerstad then singled up the middle and Shaddy scored the game-winning run.

"After he struck out we just told him, 'Hey, you're going to get another at-bat in this game and it's going to be the biggest at-bat" Van Horn said. "That's what we always tell the guys when they are struggling a little bit or having a bad game. He got there in the ninth and came through."

"I was just trying to hit something hard, like my usual routine," Kjerstad said. "I was just trying to get in that winning run for our team to finish off the sweep."

Kjerstad was doused in cold water by celebrating teammates.

"Honestly, the water wasn't that cold because my adrenaline was pumping," Kjerstad said. "It was fun for all of us."

Reindl was the closer last season when Arkansas won 45 games. He had been struggling so far this season with a 5.92 ERA.

"First of all, I want to say it's great to see all of your beautiful faces once again," Reindl said to members of the media. "It's been a really long time, but it felt good to kind of finally get back in the swing of things and get to being who I was last year and who everybody expected me to be."

Van Horn called him "Last year's Reindl. "Through seven innings, he allowed only one hit and one run and struck out a career-high nine against two walks.

It should have been two runs. After Brett Wright's leadoff walk in the third, Jay Estes hit a one-out long fly to left field. Kjerstad leapt at the fence, but the ball "disappeared," Van Horn said.

Kjerstad did not catch it, but Wright may have thought he was going to catch it and tarried, while Estes, running for what appeared would be a double or an out, passed Wright. Wright still scored, but Estes' would-have been home run was scored a single and an out at first.

"I think the batter hit the ball hard but didn't think it was going out of the park," Van Horn said. "We didn't think it was going out of the park. I thought Heston was going to catch it or it was going to hit the wall. He (Estes) was moving really good and the first runner (Wright), I really don't know what happened there. But I guess he might have thought he caught it and started coming back the other way and the other runner was running hard and the ball disappeared. I thought it was in Heston's glove. But yeah, it was an unusual play."

Reindl walked one with one out in the fourth and retired the next 17 consecutively.

"We've been talking all week that we need him and he showed up in a big way and he continued to get better as the game went on," Van Horn said.

Cole was 2-for-4 and hit a two-run single to tie the game in the seventh inning. He also scored on a double by freshman Casey Martin, who later scored from second on an infield single by sophomore Dominic Fletcher.

Sports on 04/10/2018

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