FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas extended its winning streak to 10 games with a 10-2 victory over Nevada on Wednesday night at Baum Stadium before an announced crowd of 1,954.
The No. 3 Razorbacks (20-2) matched their fewest games needed to reach 20 victories. They started 20-1-1 in 1982 and 20-2 in 1996 and 2005.
Dave Van Horn, in his 10th season as Arkansas’ coach, has been a part of three of those teams. He was the Razorbacks’ starting second baseman in 1982.
“We’ve won these games a lot of different ways,” Van Horn said. “The pitching has been solid just about all the time, but we’ve done it some games with outstanding defense, and we’ve had some great offensive games.
“Sometimes you have to be lucky. ... But if we keep pitching the way we have been, we’ll be in every game,. And when we’ve got the lead late, we’ve finished it.”
Arkansas’ starting outfielders combined to reach base nine times and score six runs.
Sophomore center fielder Jacob Morris went 2 for 5 and drove in three runs; senior right fielder Sam Bates went 3 for 4 with a walk and scored three times; and junior left fielder Matt Vinson walked three times — giving him 12 walks in the past four games — and scored twice.
“It was fun,” Morris said. “We expect anyone in the lineup to get the job done, and it so happened that tonight as an outfield we did well.
“That’s just how we’re supposed to play. We know that we’re a good team. We expect to win every time we go out.”
Six Arkansas pitchers combined to hold the Wolf Pack to three hits, and Nevada (10-9) didn’t score after the first inning.
Chris Oliver, a freshman righthander from Farmington, pitched three scoreless innings for the Razorbacks and picked up his first victory. He lowered his ERA to 0.75 in 12 innings over six appearances.
“I thought tonight was probably my best performance of the year so far,” Oliver said. “I struggled with the curveball early, but I figured it out, and the fastball felt really good. It had a lot of downhill tilt on it, and it felt good coming out of my hand.”
Junior lefthander Trent Daniel, who came into the game with an 8.44 ERA in four appearances, retired Nevada in order in the sixth inning on 13 pitches. Van Horn said Daniel “solidified’ his spot on the traveling squad for this weekend’s SEC series at Mississippi State.
“That was the Trent Daniel we knew from last year,” Van Horn said. “He showed us he’s got it. He was throwing the ball in the low 90s. It had some giddy-up on it. He threw a couple good breaking balls. That was really exciting to see.”
Arkansas scored four runs in the second inning on three hits, a walk and two Nevada errors to take a 4-2 lead. Bates hit a leadoff single and went to second when Vinson drew a one-out walk. Morris singled to center to score Bates. Vinson and Morris then came around to score on catcher Carlos Escobar’s throwing error.
Morris’ two-run double in the third inning — after consecutive walks to Bates, Jacob Mahan and Vinson — pushed Arkansas’ lead to 6-2.
Tim Carver and Jimmy Bosco had RBI singles in the fifth inning to put the Razorbacks ahead 8-2.
Freshman Conor Costello added a two-run single in the eighth to make it 10-2.
Nevada took a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Arkansas freshman Mark Reyes loaded the bases with a walk and two hit batters. Kewby Meyer then hit a single to score Kyle Hunt, and Brett Jones also scored on a throwing error by Vinson.
“’We give up two runs ... and they’re all hyped up and excited and we’re kind of scrambling a little bit in the dugout trying to figure out if we can give these young pitchers another inning or two,” Van Horn said. “Then Reyes came out and had a pretty good second inning, and Chris did a nice job.
“We had it scripted it out after that, and it went as planned.”
WEDNESDAY’S GAMES
Arkansas 10, Nevada 2
Wofford 5, South Carolina 4 Kentucky 10, Cincinnati 7 Tennessee 4, Fla. International 3 Alabama A&M at Mississippi State, ccd.
TODAY’S GAME
All times Central
Florida at South Carolina, 6:30 p.m.
FRIDAY’S GAMES
Kentucky at Tennessee, 5 p.m. Florida at South Carolina, 6 p.m. Georgia at Vanderbilt, 6 p.m. LSU at Auburn, 6 p.m.
Arkansas at Mississippi State, 6:30 p.m.
Mississippi at Alabama, 6:30 p.m.
SATURDAY’S GAMES
Florida at South Carolina, noon
Arkansas at Mississippi State, 2 p.m.
Georgia at Vanderbilt, 2 p.m. Mississippi at Alabama, 2 p.m. Kentucky at Tennessee, 3 p.m. LSU at Auburn, 3 p.m.
SUNDAY’S GAMES
Arkansas at Mississippi State, noon
Georgia at Vanderbilt, 1 p.m. Kentucky at Tennessee, 1 p.m. LSU at Auburn, 1 p.m. Mississippi at Alabama, 1 p.m.
Sports, Pages 15 on 03/22/2012