Dave Van Horn explains how Cayden Wallace pickoff play deflated Arkansas' chances

Down by three runs heading into the third inning, the Arkansas Razorbacks earned some momentum when leadoff hitter Cayden Wallace drew nine pitches for a walk to first. Unfortunately for the Hogs’ comeback effort that would fall much too short, Ole Miss pitcher Hunter Elliott picked Wallace off, deflating the moment, as Dave Van Horn described.

“Yeah, it did (suck out momentum),” Van Horn said after the 13-5 loss. “I mean, he knows he shouldn’t have got picked off. We weren’t stealing. We weren’t doing anything. I think what really hurt our momentum is we punched in two rounds in the bottom of the second. It’s 4-3. And then they punched in two at the top of the third. That was killer.

“Him getting picked off was not good. He knows it. He felt bad about it … had a great at-bat to get there. I don’t know how many pitches he saw, fouled off a bunch, finally drew a walk. And we had 4, 5, 6 coming up. Who knows what would have happened. But that hurt momentum a little bit.”

Arkansas comeback falters in third inning

Arkansas wouldn’t score another run until the ninth inning, and by then, it was too late. Ole Miss starter Hunter Elliott shared how getting the runner out at first got him into a groove. Elliott pitched 6 1/3 innings with six hits, three runs and four strikeouts.

“Absolutely, yeah, I think they got the leadoff guy on the first three innings, counting that one,” Elliott said. “And erasing him and technically getting the leadoff out was huge. It allowed me to settle in and attack the next guy and start to settle in a little bit and put it on cruise mode.”

Dave Van Horn’s squad never found their groove yesterday during their loss to Ole Miss. They played seven pitchers while trying to find the right guy to cool off the Rebel’s bats.

Arkansas’s loss puts them in a must-win situation versus the Auburn Tigers on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.