College Baseball

Arkansas pounds out easy victory

Carson Shaddy of Arkansas watches as a grand slam sails over the fence against Mississippi Valley State during the fifth inning Wednesday, April 8, 2015, at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.
Carson Shaddy of Arkansas watches as a grand slam sails over the fence against Mississippi Valley State during the fifth inning Wednesday, April 8, 2015, at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas will take some much needed momentum into this weekend's series against Kentucky.

The Razorbacks won their third consecutive game and their fourth in the past five Wednesday afternoon, beating Mississippi Valley State 14-0 in front of an announced crowd of 1,467 at Baum Stadium.

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Kentucky at Arkansas

WHEN 6:35 p.m. Friday

WHERE Baum Stadium, Fayetteville

RECORDS Arkansas 18-15, 5-7 SEC; Kentucky 18-13, 4-7

TICKETS Reserved $10, general admission $8 for nonconference games.

RADIO Razorbacks Sports Network statewide network. Not all games will be carried by all affiliates. Check local listings.

INTERNET SEC Network+ and razorbacks.com

SHORT HOPS Arkansas’ Tyler Spoon went 1 for 1 Wednesday and extended his hitting streak to 10 games. … James Teague struck out a career-high six. … Wednesday’s victory was Arkansas’ third shutout of the season. … Arkansas has had at least 10 hits in 17 games this season, including in four of the past five.

THE WEEK AHEAD

TODAY off

FRIDAY Kentucky, 6:35 p.m.

SATURDAY Kentucky, 6:05 p.m.

SUNDAY Kentucky, 12:05 p.m.

MONDAY off

TUESDAY Stephen F. Austin, 6:35 p.m.

WEDNESDAY Stephen F. Austin, 3:05 p.m.

Andrew Benintendi went 3 for 3 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI, including his 10th and 11th home runs of the season, Joe Serrano was 3 for 6 with 3 RBI and Carson Shaddy was 2 for 2 with his first grand slam as the Razorbacks (18-15) finished with 17 hits.

"When we're at our best is when we are taking aggressive swings, and we've been taking aggressive swings the past few games," said Shaddy, who hit the grand slam pinch-hitting for Tyler Spoon in the fifth inning. "That's good to see."

Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn said he was happy to see another quality day from his pitching staff as James Teague (2-2), Jonah Patten, Cannon Chadwick, Parker Sanburn and Kyle Pate combined to scatter nine hits and strike out 12 in the shutout.

"It was a good two days for our team," Van Horn said. "We played a couple of games where it went really well for us on the mound and offensively, and we also played pretty good defense. We got to put some pitchers out there who hadn't pitched in a while. Hopefully they'll be a bit more confident for us going forward."

Arkansas wasted no time taking control for the second consecutive day against the Delta Devils (6-21-1). The Razorbacks scored four runs on three hits in their first at-bat, highlighted by a three-RBI double from Spoon.

That lead grew to 4-0 in the third when Benintendi led off with an inside-the-park home run off a line-drive shot off the left-center wall.

Arkansas took advantage of Mississippi Valley State's wildness in the fourth, using three walks, a hit batter and singles by Clark Eagan and Bobby Wernes to push the lead to 8-0.

Shaddy's grand slam on an 0-2 count followed singles by Eagan, Serrano and Benintendi to make it 12-0 in the fifth.

"I haven't been doing well with two strikes," Shaddy said. "He threw me a change-up and it worked out."

Serrano doubled with two outs in the sixth, and Benintendi set the final score with a towering home run to right.

"Some hitters stayed hot or maybe got on track a little bit," Van Horn said. "We hit a lot of balls hard. It was good to see."

It was especially encouraging heading into Friday's SEC series opener against Kentucky, which won 2 of 3 at LSU two weeks ago before losing two consecutive game last weekend in a weather-shortened two-game series at home against Texas A&M.

"Kentucky is a good team and in the past they've had a lot of sock, a lot of power," said Van Horn, whose team has won seven of its past 10 games. "It's going to be a big series for us."

ARKANSAS STATE 10, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 8

Arkansas State (14-17) endured two lightning delays and beat Southern Illinois (5-27) at Itchy Jones Stadium in Carbondale, Ill.

The Red Wolves scored two runs in the eighth inning to break an 8-8 tie. Matt Burgess and Collin Massanelli had RBI singles in the inning for ASU.

Colton Kibler (2-1) pitched three innings of relief for ASU and struck out five.

Lucas Feddersen and Zach George had three hits each to lead the Red Wolves, who were outhit 12-11.

LOUISIANA TECH 7, UALR 1

Louisiana Tech (15-15) swept UALR (11-18) in the second game of a midweek series Wednesday at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park in Ruston, La.

The Trojans lost 9-7 on Tuesday and were tied with the Bulldogs 1-1 in the sixth inning Wednesday before Louisiana Tech rallied for a run in the sixth and four in the seventh for a 6-1 lead. Braden Bristo (1-2) allowed 1 run on 6 hits in 7 innings and struck out 3. He also walked one.

Stephen Chandler (0-2) took the loss for UALR, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits in 6 innings.

Ryan Scott led the Trojans offensively, going 2 for 4 with 1 run scored. Petr Sila, Tanner Rockwell, Kyle Kirk and Jason Prevatt each had a hit for UALR.

— Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Sports on 04/09/2015

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