Razorbacks take 4-3 win over Missouri

FAYETTEVILLE -- Freshman Christian Franklin was the hitting and defensive star for the No. 10 Arkansas Razorbacks in a series-clinching victory over Missouri on Saturday afternoon.

Franklin cranked a two-out, two-run single up the middle against tough lefty TJ Sikkema and made a leaping catch of a foul ball on the edge of the left-field stands beyond a fan with a distracting glove for the final out of the Razorbacks' 4-3 victory before a crowd of 6,573 at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Arkansas (16-2, 2-0 SEC) clinched its first conference series of the year while improving to 14-1 at home. The Tigers (11-7, 0-2) out-hit Arkansas 7-6 but could not string together big innings after falling behind 4-0.

Franklin's catch down the left-field line against Peter Zimmermann came one out after Mark Vierling drove a Matt Cronin fastball deep to left for Franklin.

A young fan had his glove up just over the retaining wall trying to make a catch as Franklin sprinted into foul territory.

"It was right in front of my face," Franklin said. "Running over there I had an idea it was going to be a close play maybe, so I wanted to get over there and give myself the best chance to catch the ball.

"And as it was coming down that fan was reaching over with his glove and luckily it went a little bit over his glove and I was able to make that catch so that was good.

"There were a lot of things going on over there. Thinking about the wall, the fans, but I just tried to stay focused on the ball and watching it into my glove."

Said Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn, "What a great catch. You never know what's going to happen. That was a big, strong kid at the plate. I was watching BP both days and he was launching balls. Anything could happen on a day like this when the wind is blowing out and the air is thin."

Arkansas freshman Connor Noland escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the first inning with no runs allowed, but the freshman came up one out short of finishing the fifth inning in position to notch his first victory. Noland allowed 4 hits, a walk and 1 run and struck out 4 in his 4 2/3 innings to post his fifth consecutive no-decision.

Kole Ramage (4-0) got the victory with two runs allowed on a pair of hits in his three innings, and Cronin finished for his sixth save in what turned into a dramatic ninth inning.

"I was just trying to make it as far into the game as I could," said Noland, who threw 74 pitches. "I'm not too concerned about the wins and lost column. We'll let Kole handle that."

Sikkema (2-1), who entered with a 0.46 ERA, went the distance on 122 pitches, allowing 3 earned runs on 6 hits and 2 walks, with 10 strikeouts.

"He's a good pitcher," Van Horn said. "I feel fortunate to beat him. But I thought our pitchers did a great job."

The Razorbacks could only chip away against him while raising his ERA to 1.30, scoring on a throwing error and a sacrifice fly in the first and second innings before Franklin's big hit in the fourth.

"In conference games you have to be sharp for nine innings," Missouri Coach Steve Bieser said. "We weren't very competitive with our at-bats. But what can you say about TJ? He didn't have his best stuff today, but still battled all the way through this game."

It took 13 innings for the first run-scoring hit in the series, and it was delivered by Franklin, who also drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the second inning.

In the fourth, Casey Opitz was hit by a pitch to open the inning and advanced on a wild pitch. Matt Goodheart singled just over the second baseman's glove with no outs, but Optiz could not break off second on the play and wound up at third.

Sikkema struck out Jack Kenley, then fielded Jacob Nesbit's safety squeeze and got Opitz in a rundown. Nesbit and Goodheart were able to reach second and third during the rundown.

Franklin fell behind 1-2, fouled off a pitch, then sent Sikkema's next offering right back through the box to plate two.

"It was two strikes and I was just looking for something to hit, and he left it over the middle, so I was able to put the barrel on it," said Franklin, who increased his team RBI lead to 19.

"That's a big hit," Noland said. "I mean two extra runs on top of a two-run lead gave me extra confidence to go out there and throw strikes and let them put the ball in play."

Zimmermann doubled with one out in the fifth for the Tigers' first extra-base hit in the series. Leadoff man Josh Holt brought him home with a two-out single to chase Noland.

Luke Mann's RBI double and a run-scoring single by Chris Cornelius against Ramage pulled the Tigers within 4-3 in the eighth.

An action-packed first inning lasted 29 minutes and ended with Arkansas on top 1-0 even though Missouri had a better chance to score.

The Tigers loaded the bases with no outs against a shaky Noland on a walk, Mann's bunt single, and a dropped toss at second base by shortstop Casey Martin on a potential double play ball.

Noland got a visit from pitching coach Matt Hobbs after throwing six balls in his first seven pitches.

"I was throwing the ball high," Noland said. "Just a little mechanical error. ... He just told me to settle down and settle in and throw strikes and that really helped me."

Noland struck out Cornelius looking, then got a ground ball to second from Chad McDaniel. The Razorbacks could not turn a double play but they were granted one when Kameron Misner was called out for sliding late and wide into second base on the force out.

"We were just fortunate their runner went way out of the line going after our shortstop," Van Horn said.

"We just let this thing slip away in the first inning," Bieser said. "That was a big blow to our team. We didn't respond very well to that adversity.

"The wind came out of our sails after not getting anything in the first inning. It came back to bite us and took us a while to get going. It was too little too late."

The Razorbacks got a gift run in the bottom of the inning after Martin just beat the throw to first on a ground ball to the shortstop Cornelius. Martin stole second base with two outs and came around to score on Cornelius' errant throw to first on Dominic Fletcher's grounder.

The Arkansas freshman Nesbit had a single that led to a run in the second inning to extend his hitting streak to eight games and his on-base streak to 15 games. His one-out single followed Opitz's walk and Goodheart's single to load the bases. Franklin's sacrifice fly to deep right made it 2-0.

Sports on 03/17/2019

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