FAYETTEVILLE -- The momentum gained from Arkansas' victory in its SEC opener with Ole Miss on Thursday was slipping away early Friday, and Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn couldn't bear to watch.
Van Horn was ejected in the second inning by home plate umpire Rob Healey for arguing balls and strikes from the dugout, and Ole Miss held off Arkansas 5-4 in front of 3,379 at Baum Stadium in a testy game that included the ejection of Razorbacks first baseman Clark Eagan and warnings issued to both dugouts.
Ole Miss (14-13, 4-4 SEC) and Arkansas (13-13, 2-6) will close out the series with today's game scheduled for 2:05 p.m.
Ole Miss struck first, scoring three runs in the top of the second with the help of two walks from Arkansas starter Trey Killian. Killian had walked only one batter in 17 innings this season before two consecutive Rebels reached base on walks. Cameron Dishon followed with a single to give Ole Miss a 1-0 lead.
Before another pitch was thrown, Healey issued a warning to the Arkansas dugout and almost immediately after that ejected Van Horn from the game. Van Horn came out and argued for a minute or two before leaving the field, taking his hat off and waving it to the crowd as he left to an ovation.
"I just felt like Trey had to throw way too many pitches," said Van Horn, who hadn't been tossed from a game since 2013. "There was a lot of chit-chat from [Ole Miss'] dugout in the top of the first and nothing really happened. There were some different opinions.
"There were some really tight, close pitches. It seemed like one time it was [a strike] and one time it wasn't. It was very confusing, to say the least."
Ole Miss tacked on two more runs before the inning was over on Will Golsan's single for a 3-0 lead.
Arkansas countered with a run in the bottom half of the inning. Eagan led off with a single and scored on a single by Michael Bernal to cut the lead to 3-1 with one out, but Ole Miss starter Brady Bramlett struck out Cullen Gosser to end the threat with two on base.
Arkansas rallied and pulled to within 5-4 in the seventh inning, but the Razorbacks couldn't quite make up the deficit.
"I thought we kept battling," Van Horn said. "We played good defense, and we got back in the game. We just left too many runners on base. We swung at some bad pitches."
Ole Miss made it 4-1 in the fourth on a home run by Dishon, but Arkansas cut the lead to 4-2 in the bottom half of the inning as Joe Serrano singled with two outs to drive in Tyler Spoon. The Hogs had a chance to cut into the lead even more with runners at second and third, but Bobby Wernes grounded out to third base to end the threat.
Colby Bortles, the younger brother of NFL quarterback Blake Bortles, hit a home run in the fifth to give Ole Miss a 5-2 lead.
Eagan joined Van Horn in the locker room in the bottom half of the fifth after being tossed. Eagan didn't like a called strike during his at-bat, and after grounding out to second base for the second out, he picked up his bat on the way to the dugout and drew a line in the dirt at home plate as an indication of how far outside he thought the called strike was.
Healey immediately ejected Eagan, who will be unavailable to play in today's series finale.
Andrew Benintendi pulled Arkansas to withing 5-4 in the seventh when he launched a mammoth two-run shot that carried well over the bullpen and into the trees behind the right-field wall, but that was as close as the Razorbacks could get.
Bramlett improved to 4-1 on the season, allowing 2 run on 7 hits over 5 1/3 innings. Wyatt Short picked up the final two outs in the ninth to earn his third save.
Killian (0-3) took the loss, allowing 5 runs -- all earned -- on 6 hits over 5 innings. He struck out six and walked four
One bright spot for the Razorbacks was the relief efforts of Josh Alberius, Jacob Stone and Lance Phillips, who combined to give up only 3 hits and 2 walks over 4 shutout innings.
"The pitching has been good all week," Van Horn said. "We've played four games in four days, and we've won two and lost two and had a chance to win all four. The main reason is our pitching has had a good week."
Van Horn said after the game that he was still undecided on who will start today, but that at least three or four pitchers would probably be called on.
"We've got a couple of guys sick right now that we had to send home," Van Horn said. "We'll try to put something together and see how it goes."
Sports on 03/28/2015