The No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks (4-1) dropped a 3-2 contest to Kansas State (2-4) in their opening game of the College Baseball Series Globe Life Field in Arlington Friday night. The Hogs rallied to tie the game in the sixth inning, but Kansas State answered with the go ahead run in the top of the seventh inning.
The Razorbacks offense struggled to get anything going in the early innings for the fourth time in five games this season and were outhit by the Wildcats eight to seven but had a chance to win the game going into the ninth inning. Wildcat closer Blake Dean pitched the last 3.2 innings and scattered three hits to get the win. He gave up a leadoff single to Kendall Diggs to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning then settled down to get the next three batters to secure the win.
FROST HOT IN FIRST START
Kansas State starter Jacob Frost had appeared in two games out of the bullpen for the Wildcats coming into Friday’s game. He had walked four and struck out four batters in 2.2 innings across two relief appearances. In his first start, Frost commanded his fastball to both sides of the plate racking up a career high six strikeouts in 5.2 innings. Coach Pete Hughes mentioned he wanted to use this weekend to solidify his rotation before Big 12 play starts, and Frost made his case with five strong innings.
GAECKLE FIGHTS BACK
Sophomore Gabe Gaeckle did not have his best stuff against the Wildcats. After allowing one hit and one walk last week to Washington State, he gave up five hits and four walks in his 5.2 innings of work.
Gaeckle was efficient in his first two innings of work but a walk to Micah Dean started a rough stretch through the third and fourth innings. Dean would steal second and score on a Dee Kennedy single to put the Wildcats on the board. In the fourth inning, Maximus Martin doubled to lead off the inning and would come around to score after a Shintaro Inoue single.
Gaeckle never seemed to get a feel for his curveball which limited his arsenal to two pitches which gave Kansas State an advantage. While the strike zone may have been a little tighter at times, his inability to locate his fastball consistently ran his pitch count up quickly. He finished with a career high of 98 pitches for the game.
BASH BROTHERS
For five innings, Jacob Frost got the best of Arkansas hitters. That would change in the sixth inning when Wehiwa Aloy led off the inning with an opposite field home run to cut the Kansas State in half. Two batters later, Kuhio Aloy unloaded on a 2-2 fastball to the tune of 424 feet to left field to tie the game. The younger Aloy earned an opportunity to start as the designated hitter after hitting two home runs and driving in seven runs in two games last weekend.
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