Arkansas Strikes Early To Clinch Series With 6-4 Win
April 23, 2006 | Baseball
* Official Statistics
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STARKVILLE, Miss. - Arkansas plated runs in five of the first six inningsand Razorback starter Shaun Seibert held MSU scoreless over the same spanSunday afternoon as No. 12 Arkansas (30-12, 10-8 SEC) clinched the weekendseries with a 6-4 win over No. 15 Mississippi State (29-11, 8-9 SEC) at DudyNoble Field. The win clinched the fourth straight SEC weekend series forArkansas while MSU, after winning its first two, has dropped its last four.
Clint Arnold went 4-for-5 and doubled in two runs to give the Razorbacks a2-0 lead in the second inning, and Brian Walker, Stephen Robison and DannyHamblin belted solo home runs as Arkansas took a 6-0 lead.
The Bulldogs staged a rally in the seventh, plating four runs and chasingArkansas starter Shaun Seibert from the game. Devin Collis got the game'sfinal eight outs to earn his seventh save.
Robison bunted in Arkansas' fifth run of the game in the fifth.
State starter John Lalor (2-3) struggled on the mound for State. Thesophomore right-hander gave up a single and walked a pair but got out of thejam in the first inning. In the second, though, the Razorbacks got astrikeout/wild pitch, a base hit by Blake Parker and Arnold's double to leftto plate the game's first two runs. Lalor walked two more and was chargedwith two wild pitches in the inning. He gave up Robison's lead-off home runand a single before leaving the game in the fourth.
Chad Crosswhite allowed two runs (one earned) on two hits with threestrikeouts in three innings, while Aaron Weatherford and Mitch Morelandcombined to shut out Arkansas over the last three frames.
Thomas Berkery and Brian LaNinfa singled off Seibert to open the seventh.Relief pitcher Charley Boyce then hit Joseph Hunter with a pitch to load thebases. After a fly out, Brad Jones drew a bases-loaded walk, and two runsscored when Joseph McCaskill reached base on an error. State's final runscored on a sacrifice fly by Jeff Butts.
The Bulldogs went down in order in the eighth and ninth against Collis asArkansas snapped a string of six consecutive MSU series wins againstArkansas.
MSU pitching registered 10 strikeouts, the staff's second double-digitstrikeout total in 19 games. But the Bulldog hurlers were touched for ninehits, including three home runs and a double, issued six walks, threw threewild pitches and hit a batter in MSU's second loss of the weekend.
Seibert did not walk a batter and recorded three of the Razorback staff'sfour strikeouts during his season-longest six-inning start.
The Bulldogs travel to Hattiesburg, Miss., Apr. 28-29 for a pair of midweekbattles with instate non-conference rival Southern Miss, then close out a22-game April schedule with a three-game SEC series Apr. 28-30 at SouthCarolina.
