COLLEGE BASEBALL : Oral Roberts adds to Arkansas’ misery
Posted on Wednesday, April 9, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/222275/
FAYETTEVILLE — This was supposed to be an opportunity for Arkansas.
It was an opportunity to wash out the bad taste left by Sunday’s late-inning meltdown in a loss to Auburn, an opportunity to beat a quality opponent and improve its NCAA Tournament resume. No less important, it was an opportunity for Arkansas to feel better about itself with another tough road swing looming.
Instead, Oral Roberts took advantage of its opportunity and cruised to a 9-4 victory over Arkansas before 1, 034 at Baum Stadium on Tuesday.
The Razorbacks (17-14 ) continue to fade fast with 13 losses in their past 19 games. It doesn’t get any easier anytime soon, either. Arkansas goes on the road and plays No. 25 Florida this weekend in Gainesville, then gets a rematch with Oral Roberts next Tuesday in Tulsa.
Arkansas’ struggle to drive in key runs continued Tuesday night as the Razorbacks stranded 11 runners.
“We just didn’t get it done. There’s nothing I can really elaborate on,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “We couldn’t get a big hit to bust it open.”
The Razorbacks certainly could have used a victory over Oral Roberts (21-7 ), a pesky midmajor that breathes for these types of games. The Golden Eagles have dominated the Summit League — formerly the Mid-Continent Conference — and are on track to make it 11 consecutive league championships and NCAA Tournament appearances.
To compensate for a less-thanstellar conference schedule, ORU annually loads up on quality nonconference games, having already played Louisiana-Lafayette, Baylor, Pepperdine, Texas and Wichita State. All of those team have been or are currently ranked, and the Eagles went a respectable 4-4 in those matchups.
“We want to play the best teams, and we know we can hang with them,” said Eagles right fielder Brendan Duffy, who went 3 for 6 with 2 runs scored Tuesday. “It’s good to play other good teams to see where we stand against the best teams in the country.”
Arkansas’ night was typified by a miscommunication between second baseman Ben Tschepikow and shortstop Tim Smalling in the fifth inning. With two outs and the Razorbacks trailing just 3-2, Pat Murray hit a slow ground ball up the middle. Tschepikow and Smalling arrived around the same time to meet it, but each seemed to wait for the other to field the ball and then watched as it slid into center field for an RBI hit.
Van Horn called it the most disappointing play of the game, and it became even more costly when David Genao followed with an RBI double to make it 5-2.
“Instead of being in the dugout down one run, we went in the dugout down three,” Van Horn said. “Tschep went to the bag, thought Smalling was taking it. The ball was on Smalling’s side, and he was playing more in the hole. He thought Ben was taking it.
“ You’ve got two guys who are older, and they need to communicate.”
Brian Van Kirk’s two-run home run in the sixth capped another three-run inning for an 8-2 lead.
“In my opinion, Dave is one of the top five coaches in the country,” ORU Coach Rob Walton said. “Having an opportunity to play him means you’re going to have an opportunity to get better.”
Arkansas took a 2-1 lead in the second when Brett Eibner hit a home run and Jacob House scored from second on a passed ball and a throwing error. Slumping Razorback senior Aaron Murphree had three singles, his first multihit game since March 11. Redshirt freshman Sam Murphy (0-2 ) took the loss for the Razorbacks, allowing 5 earned
2 runs on 5 walks and 8 hits in 4 / 3 innings.