ARLINGTON, Texas — Kansas State quickly answered Arkansas’ only runs Friday and handed the fifth-ranked Razorbacks their first loss, 3-2, at Globe Life Field.
K-State first baseman David Bishop singled and scored on Micah Dean’s 1-out double to the left-field corner in the top of the seventh inning. That gave the Wildcats (2-4) the go-ahead run in front of an announced crowd of 13,886 that was overwhelmingly wearing Razorback red.
“This was a home game for Arkansas, in case your hearing wasn’t working,” Kansas State coach Pete Hughes said. “It was important to answer immediately to get the momentum back in our dugout.”
Arkansas (4-1) tied the game 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning with solo home runs from brothers Wehiwa and Kuhio Aloy to chase K-State left-handed starter Jacob Frost.
Wehiwa Aloy turned on a 2-2 changeup and sent it 363 feet to right field to lead off the inning. After Brent Iredale flied out to center field, Kuhio Aloy smashed a 3-2 sinker 424 feet to left field with an exit velocity of 117.1 mph to tie the game.
Arkansas nearly took the lead after Frost was replaced by right-hander Blake Dean. Pinch hitter Cam Kozeal doubled off the wall in right-center field to give the Razorbacks a 1-out base runner.
Kozeal was stranded when Kendall Diggs struck out and Ryder Helfrick lined out to shifted shortstop Maximus Martin.
It was a frustrating night offensively for the Razorbacks, who left 7 on base and went 1 for 14 with runners on base. The only hit was a 2-out single by Wehiwa Aloy in the seventh, but the inning ended when Charles Davalan tried to go first to third and was thrown out by center fielder Micah Dean.
“He should have stayed at second,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “The play was in front of him. It didn’t look like he was going full speed, like he was going 100% right away. He kept looking for help. If the play is in front of you, you should just shut it down. You don’t make the third out at third, especially when you have your hottest hitter [Iredale] coming up.”
Diggs led off the bottom of the ninth with a bloop single to left field, but he did not advance. Ryder Helfrick flied out to the warning track in left field, Nolan Souza struck out swinging and Justin Thomas grounded out to third against Blake Dean.
“There was just a lot of frustration over here today,” Van Horn said. “We hit the two homers and we’re thinking, ‘OK, things are changing our way.’
“We had our opportunities and we just didn’t get it done.”
Thomas gave Arkansas some momentum going into the home half of the ninth. Playing his first game in center field, Thomas caught a shallow fly ball from Bishop and threw out Bear Madliak at home plate for an inning-ending double play.
“He played really well out there,” Van Horn said. “Obviously that was a really good throw there in the ninth.”
K-State scored twice against Arkansas starter Gabe Gaeckle, who threw 99 pitches but only 56 for strikes. Micah Dean drew a 2-out walk and stole second base against Gaeckle in the third inning, and scored on Dee Kennedy’s RBI single under the glove of the third baseman Iredale.
The Wildcats went ahead 2-0 in the fourth when Maximus Martin — a former Arkansas commit — doubled to lead off and scored on a 1-out single by 8-hole hitter Shintaro Inoue.
Arkansas coaches allowed Gaeckle to work into the sixth. He was replaced after he issued a 2-out walk to Madliak, who was stranded when reliever Tate McGuire got an inning-ending ground out.
Gaeckle allowed 2 runs on 5 hits and 4 walks, and struck out 2.
“Gabe didn’t have his stuff tonight,” Van Horn said.
Eight times the Wildcats got to a 3-ball count against Gaeckle.
“We were able to get him into 3-ball counts, which hasn’t happened to him in his career,” Hughes said. “Once I saw that, our guys got some good swings on fastballs. They were seeing his stuff pretty good.”
McGuire allowed Bishop’s game-turning single on a 2-0 pitch to lead off the seventh. Donte Lewis popped a bunt back to the mound for the first out, but Micah Dean looped a 0-1 pitch to shallow left that rolled to the corner, allowing Bishop to score from first base.
Van Horn said McGuire missed his spot, throwing a cutter inside instead of away.
“He just made a mistake and they made us pay for it,” Van Horn said.
Making his first start this year after a couple of short-relief outings, Frost shut down Arkansas for most of 5 1/3 innings. He allowed 2 runs, 4 hits and 2 walks, and struck out 6. He threw 50 of 78 pitches for strikes, relying most on a 91-93 mph fastball.
“He threw strikes with his fastball,” Hughes said. “He just set the tone early for us and just fed them fastballs. When he gets to both sides of the plate with that fastball, he’s effective.”
Blake Dean earned the win with 3 2/3 innings in relief. The right-hander scattered 3 hits and struck out 5.
Arkansas is scheduled to play No. 23 TCU on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Horned Frogs (5-0) defeated Michigan 10-4 in Arlington on Friday.
