Baseball drops conference opening series

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Junior Andrew Darr picked up two of the University of Arkansas baseball team’s six hits in the rubber game of its series with the University of Georgia, but the hits were not enough as the Bulldogs took the series finale 13-2 at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville on Sunday afternoon.

The Arkansas loss drops it to 12-5 on the year and 1-2 in Southeastern Conference play while Georgia improves to 8-7 and 2-1 in league action.

“When you look at the scoreboard and see that they have three more runs than they have hits, there’s something wrong there,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “We walked a few guys and [James] Mahler just didn’t pitch well. With this schedule that we put together, we have to learn how to persevere through adversity. It’s a tough road ahead and I’d trade any midweek wins for wins on the weekend.”

Mahler (1-1) started the game for the Hogs and ran into trouble immediately as the Bulldogs jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. Georgia used four walks, an error and just one hit to manufacture its run. The Bulldogs would score another run in the second before rallying for five in the fourth to open a 9-0 lead.

Arkansas would get one back in the bottom of the sixth when junior Scott Lyons walked to open the frame and was promptly followed by a Darr single to right which moved Lyons to third. Junior Logan Forsythe would hit a sacrifice fly out to deep right to score Lyons and break up the potential Georgia shutout.

The Razorbacks tacked on another run in the bottom of the eighth when Darr hit a one-out double to right center field and came around to score on a Scott Eibner single.

Along with Darr and Eibner’s hits, Tim Smalling had a double with Andy Wilkins and Casey Coon contributing singles.

For the Bulldogs Gordon Beckham was outstanding at the plate going 4-5 with five RBI and three runs scored. Two of Beckham’s four hits left the yard accounting for four RBI.

Next up for Arkansas is a week-long road trip which begins with a two-game set against the University of Nebraska on Tuesday afternoon and concludes with three in Baton Rouge, La., against the LSU Tigers. First pitch for Tuesday’s contest is slated for 1:00 p.m.