Persevering Hogs down No. 1 twice

Joe Serrano (10) of Arkansas is congratulated at the plate by Clark Eagan after Serrano hit a 2-run home run against LSU during the seventh inning Saturday, March 21, 2015, at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville. Visit nwadg.com/photos for more photos from the game.
Joe Serrano (10) of Arkansas is congratulated at the plate by Clark Eagan after Serrano hit a 2-run home run against LSU during the seventh inning Saturday, March 21, 2015, at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville. Visit nwadg.com/photos for more photos from the game.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The Arkansas Razorbacks accomplished in one day something no team had done all season against No. 1 Texas A&M.

The Razorbacks handed the Aggies their first series loss with a 9-8 come-from-behind victory in a game suspended after six innings Saturday night, and then followed it up with an 8-2 victory in a seven-inning deciding game.

"I've been in this a long time and this is one of the better days I've had as a coach," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. "From where we were at last night, down five runs, lost the first one and been at the ballpark 14 hours and know it's going to be a pretty tough [Sunday]. They seemed fresh to me and they played hard knowing this was a big series for what was on the line."

Sunday's victories lifted the Razorbacks (24-17, 9-9 SEC) to .500 in SEC play for the first time. It was the fourth consecutive weekend series victory for Arkansas, which outscored the Aggies 14-2 on Sunday at Blue Bell Park.

Arkansas persevered through a weekend that included a postponement on Friday, a suspension of play on Saturday and a delay before the start of Sunday's third game. The tarp had to be put on the infield in all three games, the last time after the Razorbacks took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning of the third game.

The 2 hour, 6 minute delay didn't slow down Arkansas as the Hogs sent 10 batters to the plate and scored six runs in the opening inning.

"The guys just stayed loose and we just kept telling them this is you, you guys do what you have to do to be ready for the game," Van Horn said.

Luke Bonfield and Brett McAfee had two-run singles off starter Texas A&M starter Matt Kent (6-1) and then Michael Bernal greeted reliever Andrew Vinson with a RBI double down the left-field line.

"It seemed like an awkward day for both teams," senior Joe Serrano said. "It was who is going to have the most energy.The team came out with energy and a lot of poise and our pitchers threw strikes when we needed them to."

Starter Keaton McKinney (3-1) yielded seven hits and walked four. He got out of a second-inning bases-loaded jam when J.B. Moss sent Serrano to the left-field wall for a long sacrifice fly.

Zach Jackson got McKinney out of the other bases-loaded situation, striking out Blake Allemand in the sixth.

"The ball had been carrying pretty well to left field and today it seemed like the ball would get up and carry and carry and then hit a wall and would come straight down," Serrano said. "That was the best thing that could have happened. I got the ball into third base and they only score one. That was big time."

Serrano was the big hitter in the suspended game. He walked when play resumed in the seventh and scored from third when Andrew Benintendi was caught in a rundown on a pickoff attempt.

"That was a veteran move by Joe Serrano to make sure we got one out of that," Van Horn said. "Obviously they are up five runs (8-3) at the time and they just wanted to get an out, shut down the hitting."

Serrano's two-out, bases-clearing triple to left-center in the five-run eighth was the big blow, and it pulled the Hogs to within 8-7. Serrano tied it at 8-8 on an infield single by Benintendi, who crossed home with the eventual game-winner on Chad Spanberger's single to right.

Serrano credited Clark Eagan for keeping the inning alive by "wearing a pitch." The Aggies changed pitchers after Eagen was hit, going to their closer Mark Ecker, who had not yielded an earned run all season. Arkansas tagged him for 5 hits and 2 earned runs in 1 1/3 innings.

"To come back you have to have some things go your way and we did, but we also created some things," Van Horn said. "We came out here trying to win the game, we just didn't come out here trying to get it over with."

Jackson Lowery (4-0) got the final out on Saturday night and pitched into the ninth on Sunday, before giving way to James Teague after hitting his second batter. Teague got behind the final hitter 3-0 and came back to strike out Logan Nottebrok.

"He [Teague] did a good job, got the last hitter out, threw him five breaking balls in a row and the count was full and then he zipped a fast ball and that was the first one he saw so it made it look a little bit harder than it was," Van Horn said. "It was just big time job getting him out."

Sports on 04/20/2015

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