ARLINGTON, Texas — One night after the big hit was elusive, the fifth-ranked Arkansas baseball team got the big hits it needed Sunday evening at Globe Life Field.
The Razorbacks blew a 4-1 lead in the top of the ninth inning, then tied the game on Camden Kozeal’s 1-out solo home run in the bottom of the ninth and won 6-5 when Damian Ruiz scored on Maika Niu’s sacrifice fly in the 11th.
“There were some guys that were bummed out in there,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “I said, ‘Hey man, we’re down a run. We get the last at-bat and we’ve got the top of the order up. Who cares?’
“That was a big win for us. Now we can get to tomorrow and have a chance to get out of here hopefully with our third win tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.”
Arkansas (2-1) finished with a winning record at the College Showdown. The Razorbacks will remain in Arlington on Monday to play Tarleton State at 2 p.m.
“This is a good team win,” Kozeal said. “We’ll get a little rest tonight. We played two 7 o’clock games [Friday and Saturday] , and as a student-athlete, I’ve got homework still due tonight.
“You can actually go sit down and do your homework.”
The Red Raiders (0-3) scored 4 runs on 3 walks, 2 hits and 1 hit batsman against Arkansas’ top closer candidates, Cooper Dossett and Steele Eaves, in the ninth inning to go ahead 5-4.
Dossett walked Jace Souza with the bases loaded to force home the Red Raiders’ second run, and after the pitching change, Eaves hit Kyeler Thompson in the helmet with a pitch to pull Texas Tech within 4-3.
That brought Tracer Lopez to the plate, and he lined a 2-strike pitch into left field, scoring 2 runners to give the Red Raiders a 5-4 lead.
It was the first appearance for Dossett since May 2024 at Texas A&M. He missed last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
“Maybe he was just nervous,” Van Horn said. “[There were] a couple of close misses, but he was also behind in the count. … Those are things you’re going to have to clean up if you’re going to pitch at the end of the game.”
The left-handed Kozeal hit a 409-foot solo home run on a 0-2 pitch from Texas Tech right-handed reliever Will Jordan in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game 5-5.
“He kept us in the game, for sure,” Ruiz said of Kozeal. “That was big.”
Both teams went down in order in the 10th, and Eaves pitched a scoreless 11th when he worked around a 2-out walk to Souza. Eaves bounced back from the shaky ninth to earn the win with a 2 1/3-inning outing that included 1 hit, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts.
“We brought him in because we trust him,” Van Horn said. “We know he’s going to throw it over the plate, usually with some sink. Once we tied it up we could have gone to somebody else, but we rode him back out there two innings in a row and he got us back in there. I think it’s big for him mentally to get that done.”
Ruiz led off the bottom of the 11th with a single to center field against Texas Tech right-hander Logan Bevis, then went first to third on Ryder Helfrick’s single to right field.
Batting leadoff for the first time at Arkansas, Ruiz reached in every plate appearance. He went 2 for 2 with 4 walks, 2 runs scored and 1 stolen base.
“The whole goal is to get on base,” Ruiz said. “With Ryder hitting behind me and Cam Kozeal hitting behind me, these guys are going to drive me in. That’s kind of the whole approach. The goal is to get on base and let the guys do the work.”
Thompson, the Texas Tech center fielder, collided with left fielder Logan Hughes on the fly ball from Niu. That gave the speedy Ruiz plenty of time to tag and score with a headfirst dive into home plate.
Ruiz said he was planning to run when the ball went into the air.
“I was, but at the same time I kind of saw them collide,” Ruiz said. “I feel like I have enough speed to make things happen.”
The throw from Thompson went past Texas Tech catcher Davis Rivers. With the Red Raiders’ dugout screaming that he dove over the plate, Ruiz stood up and touched home. By then the umpires were already leaving the field.
“I felt like I touched it the first time, but I went ahead and just touched it again just to make sure,” Ruiz said.
“He touched it, man,” Kozeal said. “They were all freaking out. If the home plate umpire signals safe, the play is over.”
Arkansas got a strong start from Colin Fisher and good defense behind its pitchers. Shortstop Carson Brumbaugh, Ruiz in left field and Niu in center all made strong plays defensively to limit Texas Tech’s opportunities.
Fisher, a junior left-hander, allowed 1 hit and 2 walks, and struck out 8 in 5 scoreless innings. The Red Raiders did not have a base runner against him until a 1-out single by Robin Villeneuve in the third inning.
As he has been throughout his career, Fisher was efficient with his 82 pitches. He threw 13 pitches in the first inning, 15 in the second, 15 in the third, 19 in the fourth and 20 in the fifth.
“It was really good,” Van Horn said of Fisher’s outing, and added, “The first three innings, he was rolling.
“We didn’t give them anything until the ninth, and we gave them some runs.”
Ruiz led off the bottom of the third inning with a walk, went first to third on Helfrick’s single and scored on a fielder’s choice RBI by Niu to give Arkansas a 1-0 lead.
A 2-out, 2-run error by Texas Tech third baseman Connor Shouse increased the Razorbacks’ lead to 3-0 in the fourth.
With the bases loaded, Helfrick hit a 1-2 pitch into the ground. Shouse, who made a couple of good defensive plays in the first inning, fielded the ball cleanly but had to throw against his body. The throw sailed wide of Villenueve at first base.
Brumbaugh scored from third base, and Christian Turner scored from second.
Fisher issued a 1-out walk to Matt Quintanar in the fifth inning, then punched out Villenueve on the ninth pitch of his at-bat for the second out. That drew a mound visit from pitching coach Matt Hobbs, but Fisher remained in the game and got Souza to pop up to shortstop on the second pitch to end the top of the fifth.
Arkansas took a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth when Kozeal led off with a walk and scored on a 2-out double by former Texas Tech infielder TJ Pompey.
Relief pitcher James DeCremer cleaned up his own mess in the sixth to preserve a shutout. After Thompson led off with a single and Lopez followed with a walk, DeCremer fielded a hard hopper back to the mound off the bat of Shouse and started a pitcher-to-shortstop-to-first base double play.
DeCremer stranded Thompson at third base thanks to a strong defensive play from the shortstop Brumbaugh, who made a good throw against his body to first base.
Texas Tech scored its first run in the eighth when Villenueve singled to lead off against left-hander Parker Coil. Souza followed with a walk and after they were bunted over, Villenueve came home on Lopez’s sacrifice fly.
The Red Raiders stranded another runner at third on another good defensive play from Brumbaugh on a groundball hit to shortstop. That kept the Razorbacks ahead 4-1 until things went haywire in the ninth.
Up Next
Arkansas is scheduled to play Tarleton State on Monday at 2 p.m. at Globe Life Field.
The Texans (3-0) swept Le Moyne at their home ballpark in Stephenville, Texas, by scores of 20-3 (7 innings) on Friday, 5-4 on Saturday and 13-8 on Sunday.
