No. 23 Baseball Rolls Past Alabama In Series Opener

Box Score (PDF)

HOOVER, Ala. – The No. 23 University of Arkansas baseball team (27-18, 12-10) used a career outing from Trey Killian to roll past Alabama (23-22, 8-14) 5-1 Thursday evening at the Hoover Met.

Killian was dominate on the mound, tossing 6.1 innings and giving up just one run, while adding a career-high tying nine strikeouts. He struck out six of the first nine outs he recorded and cruised to his fourth quality start of the year.

With Arkansas leading 2-1 in the seventh, Michael Bernal broke the game wide open, following a Brett McAfee double with a two-run blast to left field for his fourth home run of the year to make it 4-1. Chad Spanberger was inches away from his first collegiate home run in the ninth, but was robbed at the fence and the sacrifice fly gave the Razorbacks a 5-1 victory.

Zach Jackson, the newest member of the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team, came on in the seventh inning and worked 2.1 scoreless innings with five strikeouts to earn his fifth save of the year.

Andrew Benintendi continues to swing a red hot bat, going 2-for-4 with a double and run scored, while McAfee and Bernal added two hits apiece and scored two runs.

Arkansas will go for its sixth consecutive SEC series win Friday evening with first pitch slated for 6 p.m. on SEC Network. Dominic Taccolini will get the start on the mound.

Game Notes

  • Arkansas capped off the month of April with a 13-4 record.
  • The Razorbacks have won the opening game in six of eight SEC series this season.
  • The Arkansas pitching staff has allowed two runs or less in four of the last five games.
  • Andrew Benintendi has reached base in 18 straight games and in 19 of his last 25 plate appearances.
  • Benintendi now leads the SEC in batting average at .384 to go along with his conference leading slugging percentage (.723), total bases (115) and home runs (14).
  • Benintendi has hit safely in 16 of his last 18 games.
  • Benintendi has 21 multi-hit games this season seasons.
  • Michael Bernal collected his 20th career multi-hit game and now leads the team with 17 RBI’s in SEC games.
  • Trey Killian tied his career-high with nine strikeouts.
  • Zach Jackson tallied his fifth save of the season.

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