Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

College Baseball

SEC Tournament: Kentucky tops Arkansas in slugfest, eliminating Razorbacks

Andrew Olson

By Andrew Olson

Published:

Day 3 of the SEC Tournament opened with an elimination game that would send one of the top 4 seeds packing. No. 3 seed Kentucky came out on top 9-6 in a game that featured 6 home runs, ending 2-seed Arkansas’ stay in Hoover. It’s the first loss of 2024 for Razorback ace Hagen Smith, the SEC Pitcher of the Year.

The Hogs committed two errors in the bottom of the 1st, allowing two unearned runs to score, giving UK the early lead.

The Wildcats extended that lead in the bottom of the 4th with the first home run of the day, a solo shot from Ryan Nicholson.

Ryan Waldschmidt made it 4-0 with a solo home run in the bottom of the 5th inning, his first of two homers. The Cats got it all the way up to 6-0 when Nick Lopez plated 2 more with an RBI single to right center.

The Hogs weren’t ready to roll over. After Kentucky’s Trey Pooser tossed 5 scoreless innings (3 H, 3 K, BB), Arkansas made the ball game interesting with a 4-run 6th inning. It started with an RBI ground. Peyton Holt then hit his first of two dingers, a 3-run jack to left field, cutting the lead to 6-4.

The Bat Cats were kept scoreless in the bottom half of the 6th. In the 7th inning, though, they took the momentum back scoring 3 more runs.

After Arkansas committed its third error to put a runner on, Waldschmidt blasted his second homer of the day, making it an 8-4 game.

UK’s third run of the inning came on a sacrifice fly to make it 9-4. Once again, the Hogs weren’t giving up.

Arkansas managed 2 more home runs in its final 6 outs. The problem for Dave Van Horn’s squad is that both were solo homers.

Holt got his second of the day to make it 9-5 in the 8th. Jared Sprague-Lott made it a 9-6 game in the 9th before Byers recorded the final out.

Kentucky moves on to another elimination game, facing the loser of the LSU-South Carolina winner’s bracket game.

Arkansas will get ready for the NCAA Tournament. The Razorbacks are 43-14. With an RPI of No. 4 nationally, the Hogs are expected to be hosting a Fayetteville Regional.

Want to bet on the Bat Cats in the postseason? SDS has you covered with the best Kentucky sports betting apps!

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.

You might also like...

2025 RANKINGS

presented by rankings