COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The second-ranked Arkansas baseball team did what it had to do to win a division title at Blue Bell Park but not enough to take the series from fourth-ranked Texas A&M.
The Aggies hit four home runs and took advantage of a thin Arkansas bullpen to win 14-4 in a seven-inning run rule on a hot, humid Saturday afternoon in Central Texas.
“Give A&M credit,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “They just kept chipping away at some of our guys who were coming out of the bullpen. We weren’t super sharp. Obviously, it was hot here today. It had a little bit of an effect on the game. But bottom line, we just got beat.”
Van Horn said before the game he would not overextend his pitching in order to get arms fresh for the SEC Tournament next week. The Razorbacks will be the No. 2 seed at the tournament. They will play Wednesday at approximately 1 p.m. against the winner of a Tuesday game between Alabama and South Carolina.
“Sometimes you’ve got to lose a game, or let one go, to save people to win a game down the road,” Van Horn said. “That’s kind of where we were pitching-wise, injury-wise, rest-wise.
“If we win the game, that’s great, but it was a real slim chance that we were going to come back and win that game with what [the Aggies] had left in their bullpen.”
Ryan Targac, a veteran fan favorite who has struggled to earn playing time for Texas A&M, hit a pinch-hit RBI single against Arkansas reliever Dylan Carter to end the game after 6 2/3 innings. It was the first SEC hit for Targac, a .220 hitter, since an April 5 game against South Carolina and his first playing time in two weeks.
He was coaching first base when he was motioned to the third-base dugout for his pinch-hit role.
Targac, who was one of Texas A&M's leaders on a 2022 national semifinalist team, was mobbed by teammates after his single into the left-center gap. He received a loud ovation from the announced crowd of 7,337 before his at-bat and just before the team and fans sang the "Aggie War Hymn" fight song.
“It meant a lot to me and a lot to my family,” Targac said. “I’m happy to get the job done for the team.”
Texas A&M (44-11, 19-11 SEC) won the series with its second victory of the week over the Razorbacks and improved to 32-3 on its home field.
The Aggies won 1-0 in 11 innings Thursday. Arkansas clinched the SEC West title with a 6-3 victory Friday.
“Considering how the last two weeks have gone, we needed that,” Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said, referencing consecutive series losses at LSU and Ole Miss.
The Razorbacks (43-12, 20-10) will be the No. 2 seed at the SEC Tournament next week and the Aggies will be the No. 4.
North winds that made the ballpark play big the first two games shifted from the south before Game 3 and turned it into a launching pad early Saturday.
Jace LaViolette and Caden Sorrell hit two-run home runs against Arkansas starter Will McEntire in the first and second innings to give the Aggies a 4-1 lead.
Pitching a scheduled short start, McEntire allowed 4 hits, walked 1 and struck out 1 in 1 1/3 innings. He threw 29 of 45 pitches for strikes to conclude a disappointing week in College Station. McEntire issued a two-out walk to the only batter he faced to give the Aggies the win Thursday.
“He didn’t locate and got behind,” Van Horn said of McEntire's Saturday outing. “They teed off on him a little bit.”
LaViolette’s team-leading 28th home run was a towering 394-foot shot to right field. Sorrell’s 359-foot homer to left looked like a fly ball off the bat but carried over the fence, just out of reach of left fielder Peyton Holt.
Hudson White hit a 405-foot homer to left-center field to pull the Razorbacks within 2-1 in the second inning. Wehiwa Aloy hit a 360-foot line-drive home run to left in the third inning to tie the game 4-4.
Aloy and White both homered in back-to-back games. White has five home runs in eight games.
Both Arkansas home runs were hit against Texas A&M left-handed starter Shane Sdao, who allowed 4 runs, 5 hits and 1 walk and struck out 3 in 3 innings.
Texas A&M regained the lead quickly after Aloy’s homer. Braden Montgomery led off the bottom of the third with a solo home run against Arkansas reliever Cooper Dossett to put the Aggies ahead 5-4.
The 436-foot shot was Montgomery’s second home run of the series and 26th of the season.
Dossett left the game later in the third with trainer Corey Wood after he threw four consecutive balls to Hayden Schott. No immediate word was available on his injury.
Relievers Chris Cortez of Texas A&M and Arkansas' Ben Bybee settled the home-run fest. Cortez struck out 8 Razorbacks in 3 scoreless innings and Bybee pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief before he ran into trouble in the bottom of the sixth.
Bybee allowed a single, double and walk and threw a run-scoring wild pitch without recording an out during the Aggies’ six-run sixth inning that turned a tight game into an 11-4 lead for Texas A&M.
Stone Hewlett did not fare much better than Bybee as he was used in some left-on-right situations instead of his usual left-on-left specialty.
Hewlett walked two, threw a run-scoring wild pitch and allowed a three-run double by Ted Burton, who walked home the winning run Thursday. Hewlett recorded 1 out and allowed 3 runs with 1 strikeout.
Carter inherited a base runner and allowed another RBI hit to Schott before he got out of the inning.
The Aggies ended the game early with three runs against Carter in the seventh. Gavin Grahovac’s two-run home run followed a one-out single by Travis Chestnut.
LaViolette followed with a single and Jackson Appel walked to bring Targac to the plate.
Correction: An earlier version misidentified a potential opponent at the SEC Tournament.
