FAYETTEVILLE -- A mid-week series against Texas Tech proved to be what the University of Arkansas baseball team needed between SEC road trips to Alabama and South Carolina, according to Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn.
The No. 2 Razorbacks beat Texas Tech 5-4 on Wednesday at Baum-Walker Stadium to complete a two-game sweep of the Red Raiders.
Arkansas (32-5) rallied to win 9-8 on Tuesday night after Texas Tech (26-13) jumped out to a 7-0 lead and bounced back from its first back-to-back losses this season at Alabama last weekend.
"It's real good," Razorbacks Coach Dave Van Horn said of sweeping Texas Tech. "I made the comment a couple days ago that I was glad we were playing a Power Five school and a team that already has 26 wins.
"They had some good numbers. We were going to have to play good and take advantage of some things to try to find a way to win one of them, much less two.
"I thought our guys did a really good job. They showed up mentally both days and played super hard.
"[Wednesday] was the day that we could have just said, 'OK, we got ours yesterday. It's not going our way.' "
Things went the Razorbacks' way in the latter innings Wednesday.
Arkansas scored twice in the sixth inning to take a 4-3 lead.
Center fielder Peyton Holt drew a leadoff walk, went to second base on a single by first baseman Ben McLaughlin and scored on shortstop Wehiwa Aloy's single.
McLaughlin and Aloy advanced to third and second base on a sacrifice bunt by third baseman Nolan Souza and McLaughlin scored on a sacrifice fly to center field by designated hitter Jack Wagner.
The Razorbacks made it 5-3 in the eighth inning when they loaded the bases and Max Huffing -- Texas Tech's sixth pitcher of the game -- hit left fielder Jaxon Jones to score Aloy from third base.
After Drew Woodson walked leading off the ninth for the Red Raiders, Stone Hewlett came in to pitch for Jake Faherty.
Landon Stripling lined out to second baseman Peyton Stovall, who then threw to McLaughlin to double off Woodson at first base.
"He hit it pretty good off the bat," Stovall said. "It was knuckling and top-spun, so it kind of handcuffed me a bit.
"I didn't know if it was going to keep going down with the topspin and I was going to have to go to second to Wehiwa, but it stayed up.
"I saw [Woodson] in my peripheral get off the bag. I knew that if I caught it, we were going to be able to turn a double play."
Cade McGee followed with a home run on the first pitch from Hewlett, but the bases were empty thanks to the double play, so Arkansas still led 5-4.
Hewlett then struck out pinch-hitter Garet Boehm swinging on three pitches to end the game.
"Stone just threw a get-me-over fastball, and the guy hammered it," Van Horn said of Boehm's home run. "A lot of times you'll see somebody take one there. But great job responding and striking out the pinch hitter on three pitches.
"Just big wins for us in the mid-week."
Arkansas scored on solo home runs by Stovall and Souza, but also got a run on Wagner's sacrifice fly. Souza and catcher Parker Rowland got down sacrifice bunts to advance runners.
The Razorbacks were held to four hits, but walked seven times and twice were hit by pitches.
"This game's funny," Van Horn said. "You line out, you bloop balls in, you hit hard ground balls at them, you hit choppers that get in.
"Sometimes you just have to be a little bit lucky, and we were that. ... [Texas Tech] lining into the double play [in the ninth inning], that's the way the game is sometimes. It can be kind of cruel to you.
"We felt we had a lot of that happen to us this past weekend [in losses at Alabama]. We hit balls hard, especially on the ground, but we hit them at 'em.
"Over time, it'll even up. I feel like we might have gotten a break or two today for sure."
The Red Raiders had six hits and four walks.
"I thought we did hit some balls hard [for outs], and that's baseball," Texas Tech Coach Tim Tadlock said. "And I think they hit some balls hard, too, ... They just came out on the right side."
The Red Raiders scored three runs off Arkansas starter Colin Fisher, including an unearned run in the second inning when Stovall had a popup go off his glove after Aloy lost it in the sun.
Cooper Dossett pitched 2 2/3 shutout innings for the Razorbacks.
"I thought he came in and executed pitches, looked like to me," Tadlock said. "He threw the ball good.
"I mean, they've obviously got a lot of arms over there."
Hewlett, a senior transfer from Kansas, got his third save for the Razorbacks and some payback against Texas Tech. He gave up the game-winning home run in the 10th inning to Gavin Cash when the Red Raiders beat Kansas 8-7 last season.
"It always feels good to win, so I'm excited about that," Hewlett said. "To be honest, I don't know if I've faced any of those guys before. I just went out and pitched."
Stovall said it was big to beat Texas Tech twice going into this weekend's series at South Carolina.
"Texas Tech is a really good team," Stovall said. "You look up and down their lineup, they're all hitting. 350 it feels like. They can swing it.
"We knew we were going to have to put up some runs. Credit to our bullpen and our starting pitcher today. Colin did a really good job of just holding them.
"It was good to get back on track playing at home."
The Razorbacks extended their home winning streak to 25 games. Their only home loss, 7-3 to James Madison, was on Feb. 18 -- 59 days ago counting Wednesday's victory.
"That's why they call it a streak," Van Horn said. "It just keeps going and going and going.
"But I don't know what to tell you. Great job, just keep winning at home. It's been nice, but we need to go win on the road."
Arkansas improved to 26-1 at home.
"To be able to protect our house has been the motto," Stovall said. "It's been really cool for us to go out and play well here at home while doing it in front of our fans."
Arkansas second baseman Peyton Stovall (left) celebrates with teammate Peyton Holt after Stovall’s home run led off the bottom of the first inning for the Razorbacks on Wednesday. The Razorbacks defeated Texas Tech 5-4 at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)