Hogs Use Homer Barrage to Beat Rebs by Run Rule
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – No. 22 Arkansas (31-16, 12-10 SEC) blasted four home runs and powered past No. 17 Ole Miss (31-16, 11-11 SEC), 12-2, in seven innings in Friday night’s series-opening win at Baum-Walker Stadium.
The Razorbacks, who have won five consecutive weekend series against the Rebels (2021-25), can clinch this weekend’s series with a win tomorrow or Sunday afternoon. Game two between Arkansas and Ole Miss gets underway at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 2, on SEC Network+ with Brett Dolan (play-by-play) and Troy Eklund (analyst) in the broadcast booth.
TJ Pompey’s go-ahead three-run blast in the bottom of the second kicked off the Hogs’ home run barrage. Camden Kozeal belted a two-run dinger in the third and Kuhio Aloy swatted a solo shot in the fourth before Ryder Helfrick capped Arkansas’ four-homer night in the sixth with a three-run round-tripper, his team-leading 15th of the season.
Aloy (3-for-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI), who also tallied the game-winning RBI double in the bottom of the seventh, finished with a team-leading three hits and was one of three Razorbacks, along with Helfrick (1-for-3, HR, 3 RBI, BB) and Pompey (1-for-3, HR, 3 RBI, SB), to nab three RBI in the run-rule win. Kozeal (1-for-4, HR, 2 RBI) also turned in a multi-RBI effort Friday.
On the mound, Arkansas ace Hunter Dietz dazzled with six innings of one-run ball and nine strikeouts to improve to 6-2 and record his team-leading seventh quality start of the campaign. The left-hander, who lowered his season ERA to 3.42 in 65.2 innings across 12 starts, raised his season strikeout total to a league-leading 101, reaching the 100-strikeout mark for the year on his eighth punchout of the night to become the first SEC pitcher this season to accomplish the feat.
Cooper Dossett worked the final frame in relief of Dietz, striking out a pair around a one-out solo home run to put the Hogs in position to secure the walk-off in bottom of the seventh. After Nolan Souza, who finished 2-for-4 with a triple, reached on an infield single, Aloy roped the game-winning double to right to cap off Arkansas’ 12-2 run-rule victory.
Friday night’s win marks the Razorbacks’ ninth by run rule this season and their first run-rule win against the Rebels in history. With an opportunity to clinch the series win tomorrow afternoon, Arkansas will start left-hander Cole Gibler (4-1, 2.91 ERA) on the mound against Ole Miss right-hander Cade Townsend (4-1, 2.33 ERA) at Baum-Walker Stadium.
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