The 18th-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks (32-14, 12-11 SEC) clinched this weekend's season series with your No. 4 Florida Gators (35-12, 17-6 SEC) with a 5-3 win Friday night in Fayetteville.
The Gators led the Razorbacks 2-1 in the third before the 'Hogs scored three runs in that inning and never looked back. The series loss breaks UF's five-series conference winning streak and marks the first time they've dropped dropped back-to-back SEC games all season. The loss also continues their streak of futility at Baum Stadium: Florida's lost its last eight dates in Fayetteville.
On to the highlights...
Arkansas started the scoring in the first by taking advantage of a Gators error and scoring on a sac fly by Dominic Ficociello off of sophomore Brian Johnson. UA's Collin Kuhn reached base on a one-out throwing error by Austin Maddox. Kuhn eventually scored on the Ficociello sac fly.Maddox made up for his error by knotting up the game at 1-1 on a two-out double off of southpaw starter Randall Fant, scoring Daniel Pigott. The double was the struggling Maddox's first extra-base hit since April 1.
Florida broke the deadlock in the third with Josh Adams' fielder's choice to make it 2-1. With Mike Zunino (double) and Preston Tucker (single) hitting on base for the 11th straight game, Adams' knocked in Zunino at the expense of Tucker at second base.
The Razorbacks took control in the bottom of the third with a RBI single from Ficociello and a two-run, base-clearing double from Kyle Robinson. Arkansas never gave up the lead from there.
The Gators pulled to within one in the fifth when Bryson Smith scored when Zunino hit into a double play. The run cut the lead to 4-3.
However, Arkansas added an insurance run in the seventh when Franco Broyles belted an infield single off of Maddox's glove to score Kuhn and take the game to its final score of 5-3 in favor of the Razorbacks.
Tonight's regular season finale features a pitching matchup of freshman righty Karsten Whitson (6-0, 2.02 ERA) taking the mound for Florida and sophmore southpaw Cade Lynch (4-2, 2.65 ERA) mounting the bump for Arkansas. The game will be shown live at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.