Dave Van Horn voices frustration over late-game walks

In Thursday night’s titanic struggle between Arkansas and Texas A&M, neither of the SEC West leaders knocked in a run until the 11th inning, when the Razorbacks walked an Aggie runner home with the bases loaded to end the game 1-0.

That’s about as tough a loss to swallow as there is. Arkansas starter Hagen Smith produced his typically great six innings of work on the mound, allowing zero runs and just two hits. Even the Razorback relief arms held up well, but ultimately they gave up one late run that sealed the deal.

After the loss, head coach Dave Van Horn spoke on the ending, noting just how infuriating such a loss was.

“Yeah, I mean, that was frustrating, you know, the walk, and that ended up being the winning run,” said Van Horn, breaking down those final few at bats from A&M.

“And then, you know, one of the walks was intentional, so don’t count that one. But then, the one to walk for the winning run, that was disappointing, because first pitch was a strike and he threw four balls in a row. You know, just got to flip that, got to do a little better job there.”

Texas A&M needed just one hit to break the game open. They walked their first batter on, then got a single, before Arkansas intentionally walked a batter and then un-intentionally walked the final batter to force the walk-off run home. Despite the late blunder, though, Van Horn could hardly be upset at his pitching staff for their outing.

“But I thought our relievers came in and did a nice job throughout the game. You know, once we took Hagen (Smith) out, everybody pretty much did their job. Just a good job by (Parker) Coil coming in and striking out (Braden) Montgomery, turned him around made him hit right-handed and threw him a couple of nice cutter/slider type pitches and kept him down. And you know, just a really nice job.”

There’s certainly no shame in allowing one run during an entire 11-inning game, and while the walk to end the game stunk, the Razorback bats really needed to provide just a little support to get the win. They didn’t on Thursday but came back on Friday to lead a win and tie the series.

Now, the Aggies and Hogs will meet Saturday for a rubber match to decide their final series of the regular season.