FAYETTEVILLE — Things were looking up for the Arkansas baseball team Friday night against No. 2 Florida.
Then the fifth inning started.
A five-run fifth carried the Gators to a 9-2 victory over the Razorbacks at Baum Stadium before an announced crowd of 6,778.
Arkansas (21-14, 4-10 SEC) suffered its seventh consecutive conference loss.
The Razorbacks have not been ahead in an SEC game since beating Missouri 7-6 on April 1, but Arkansas shortstop Michael Bernal hit a two-out home run to tie Friday night’s game 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning.
NO. 2 FLORIDA 9, ARKANSAS 2
Arkansas didn’t get to enjoy pulling even for long.
Florida responded by knocking out Razorbacks starter Keaton McKinney (1-2) and knocking around reliever James Teague.
It was the fifth time in the past six SEC games Arkansas’ opponent has scored four or more runs in an inning.
“It’s hard to overcome,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “The fifth inning was bad.”
Deacon Liput got a leadoff infield single to start the Gators’ fifth-inning rally when McKinney and first baseman Cullen Gassaway both tried to field the ball and neither covered the base.
“A seeing-eye ball up the first-base line,” Van Horn said. “There was a little miscommunication. I don’t know if we would have got him, but that was kind of hard to swallow.”
After McKinney walked Buddy Reed, Van Horn went to Teague.
“We brought in our freshest guy, one of our oldest guys, and it just didn’t happen for him,” Van Horn said. “Single here, double there.
“Kind of the same thing happened the next inning, and all of a sudden the game’s over again.”
JJ Swartz and Jonathan India hit RBI singles off Teague around a walk to Peter Alonso. Mike Rivera followed with a two-run single, and the Gators scored another score on an error by third baseman Carson Shaddy for a 6-1 Gators lead.
The Gators (32-5, 10-4) made it 8-1 in the sixth inning on Swartz’s two-run double off Teague.
Florida starter Logan Shore (7-0) held Arkansas to 1 run in 6 2/3 innings. He allowed 7 hits but didn’t issue a walk and had 4 strikeouts on 98 pitches.
“There’s a reason he’s probably going to be a first-rounder and pitch in the big leagues,” said Arkansas left fielder Luke Bonfield, who was 2 for 4. “He hits his spots well and has some sink on his fastball and has a good changeup and good breaking ball.”
McKinney, back in the SEC rotation after coming out of the bullpen at Ole Miss last weekend, threw 90 pitches in 4 innings and allowed 5 hits, 3 earned runs and 4 walks with 5 strikeouts.
It was the seventh time in nine starts this season McKinney failed to pitch more than 4 2/3 innings. His ERA increased to 6.31.
McKinney got out of a bases-loaded jam when he got Dalton Guthrie to hit into a double-play grounder to end the top of the fourth inning to keep Florida’s lead at 1-0.
Teague allowed 5 hits, 4 earned runs and 2 walks in 1 1/3 innings. His ERA is now 6.75.
Arkansas scored a run in the eighth inning on Shaddy’s double and Gassaway’s single to make it 8-2. Florida added a run in the ninth.
The Gators took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Guthrie hit a double and scored on Reed’s one-out RBI single.
After McKinney walked Swartz to put runners on first and second, he struck out Alonso and India.
“McKinney gave us a couple pretty good innings,” Van Horn said. “He ended up walking four, and that’s probably the downfall. His pitch count got up.
“Shore didn’t walk anybody. He had some quick innings. He just did a tremendous job pitching.”
Alex Faedo (6-1, 3.97 ERA) is scheduled to start for Florida in today’s 2 p.m. series finale. Van Horn said he’s not sure who will start for the Razorbacks, but Barrett Loeske and Zach Jackson are among the possibilities.
“You’ll probably see them all anyway,” Van Horn said.
Bernal said the Razorbacks have to stop their SEC losing streak.
“We can’t get swept twice in a row,” he said. “Everybody understands that. We need to try to get this thing turned around.”
Bonfield said the Razorbacks will have “a chip on our shoulder.”
“We need to get the pitchers a lead,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to pitch.”
Van Horn had a brief postgame team meeting.
“There’s not much you can say, ” he said. “Tomorrow is a huge game for us.
“We’ve got to win a game in this series, and we’ve got one more shot at it.”
Sports on 04/16/2016