FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – No. 12/17 Tennessee once again jumped out to an early lead but struggled in the middle innings to drop Saturday’s series and regular-season finale by a score of 8-4 against No. 5/8 Arkansas at Baum-Walker Stadium.
Andrew Fischer was force again for the Vols (41-15, 16-14 SEC) and stuffed the stat sheet by finishing 3-for-4 with a walk, a run scored, a double, a home run and three RBIs. His two-run blast in the sixth inning was his 22nd of the year, which leads the SEC.
Ryder Helfrick homered and drove in five runs to lead the Razorbacks (43-12, 20-10 SEC), including a grand slam in the third inning that gave them a 6-2 lead they would not relinquish.
Tegan Kuhns pitched better than his final line would indicate but was stuck with the loss after giving up five runs (four earned) on three hits and three walks over just two innings of work.
A tough balk call on a pickoff attempt at first base that would have resulted in an out, followed by an error and two straight walks, kickstarted Arkansas five-run third inning and ended Kuhns’ day early.
The bullpen duo of Brayden Krenzel and Brandon Arvidson did well to stop the bleeding and keep UT in the game with five combined solid innings of relief. Krenzel finished with five strikeouts and allowed just one run on one hit over 2.2 innings before handing things over the Arvidson, who pitched 2.1 scoreless frames while retiring all six batters he faced to go along with a career-high tying four strikeouts.
Gage Wood got the win for the Razorbacks after striking out seven and allowing two runs on seven hits over three innings while Will McEntire secured his second save with 3.2 hitless innings to finish the game.
Up Next – SEC Tournament
Following Saturday’s results around the league, Tennessee will enter next week’s SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama as the No. 8 seed and play its opening game on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. local time (10:30 a.m. ET) against the winner of Tuesday’s first-round game between nine-seed Alabama and 16-seed Missouri.
