Arkansas baseball kept its SEC Tournament path alive Friday night, beating Kentucky 5-4 at Kentucky Proud Park on Nolan Souza’s RBI double in the eighth inning and Ethan McElvain’s shutdown relief work.
The 14th-ranked Razorbacks improved to 35-19 overall and 16-13 in SEC play, a result that moved them a step closer to a Day 1 bye at next week’s SEC Tournament. Kentucky fell to 31-19 and 13-16. Arkansas can lock up the bye with a win Saturday or a Tennessee loss at Oklahoma.
Souza’s double came after Maika Niu walked to start the top of the eighth against Leighton Harris, then stole second before scoring the go-ahead run. Arkansas had trailed and recovered all night, answering Kentucky each time the Wildcats scored in the bottom of the third, fourth and seventh innings. Kentucky tied it 4-4 in the seventh after a pair of Arkansas errors, with Luke Lawrence scoring after opening the inning with a single and moving up on Ethan Hindle’s double.
McElvain kept Arkansas from unraveling. He threw three relief innings, struck out seven and earned the win, stranding the go-ahead run in scoring position in both the seventh and eighth innings before striking out the side in order in the ninth. Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said the left-hander “saved us,” and called it “one of the ugliest games I’ve been involved in in a while, at least on our side of it. I feel very fortunate to win.”
The box score told the same story of a game that felt tighter than the hit totals suggested. Kentucky out-hit Arkansas 11-9, left 13 runners on base and still could not finish the job. Arkansas stranded 11. After Niu’s steal and Souza’s double in the eighth, Arkansas missed a chance to add insurance when Damian Ruiz and TJ Pompey struck out against Nile Adcock with Souza at third base.
Van Horn said his club found a way to score “a couple of key runs to keep the lead and put a little pressure on them,” and Camden Kozeal framed it as a night of winning innings. Kozeal said Arkansas’ offense answered when it had to, even if it did not land the big hit in every spot. Kentucky coach Nick Mingione said his team “created a lot of pressure,” put plenty of runners on base and drew credit for Arkansas’ defense, which he said made “at least five awesome plays.”
McElvain said he stayed aggressive deep into the outing. “I’m going to keep going until somebody tells me I can’t go anymore, and then I’ll probably put up a fight anyway,” he said, adding that the ninth inning felt like “the first inning that I had thrown.” Arkansas got the kind of late lift that can swing a tournament seed, and with one game left in the regular season, the Razorbacks are close enough to control the one thing they need most: the next step.
The teams are scheduled to finish the series and the regular season Saturday at 1 p.m. Central.
