Dave Van Horn admits it was hard to watch Arkansas falter in late innings vs. Vanderbilt on Friday

Arkansas looked like it was closing in on an SEC title, leading Vanderbilt 8-2 entering the eighth inning. All the Razorbacks had to do was hold on to the lead and they’d bring home the conference crown.

Then, they unraveled, allowing eight runs en route to a 10-8 loss to the Commodores. Dave Van Horn said things went according to plan through the first seven innings. But Vanderbilt capitalized on some big mistakes, and he admitted it wasn’t easy to watch it all unfold.

“Played a pretty good game. Just had a bad eighth inning, obviously,” Van Horn said afterward. “Kind of had it all set up the way we wanted it. Pitchers, I thought, did a great job except in the eighth inning. Got to get Vanderbilt credit, man. They took advantage of it couple of walks, a hit by pitch and a bunted ball that didn’t get caught. I thought we played good besides just a few pitches here and there and got some big hits and played really good defense again.

“Just let it slip away there and the eighth. It was pretty hard to watch.”

Instead of Arkansas locking up the regular season title, the race was wide open as the final day of the regular season got going on Saturday. Florida and LSU also entered the day in the race for the top spot, along with the Razorbacks.

Vanderbilt comes all the way back to stun Arkansas

Enrique Bradfield plated Vanderbilt’s first run of the eighth inning with a sacrifice fly, and a single by Davis Diaz loaded the bases back up with one out.

Then, the wheels came off.

RJ Schreck was hit by a pitch to score one run and cut the deficit to 8-4. After a pitching change, Parker Noland walked to bring in another run, making it 8-5. A single by Jack Bulger scored two runs, making it 8-7 and forcing Arkansas to make another pitching change.

Finally, Troy LaNeve stepped to the plate. On the first pitch, he launched a three-run homer to left center, completing the Vanderbilt comeback and making the score 10-8.

Arkansas had a great chance in the top of the ninth, though. Kendall Diggs stepped to the plate with one out and hit a deep shot to straight-away center field. It cleared the wall, but Bradfield snatched it out of the air to rob a home run that would have cut the lead in half.

That sealed the comeback, and it set up an interesting day of baseball across the SEC on Saturday.