By CHAD CRUNK
UA Media Relations
The Arkansas Razorbacks earned a come-from-behind, 7-2 victory against Memphis on Tuesday in front of 10,062 fans at Dickey-Stephens Park.
It was the Hogs’ second visit to the North Little Rock ballpark, home of the Class AA Texas League’s Arkansas Travelers, and the second rousing success, judging by the attendance.
“It’s fun,” said coach Dave Van Horn of the crowd that packed the beer garden, filled the outfield berms and stood on the concourses to see the Razorbacks post a five-run eighth to break the game open.
“I guess when you get one game a year from the Razorbacks, a lot of folks want to come out and be a part of it, and we appreciate it.”
Before a similar-sized crowd, Arkansas beat Louisiana Tech 5-4 at Dickey-Stephens Park last year.
The Razorbacks (17-4) completed their tour of minor league ballparks Wednesday when they won the rematch with the Tigers, 7-3, at Memphis’ AutoZone Park, home of the Class AAA Memphis Redbirds.
In Tuesday’s game, Arkansas broke open a tie game in the bottom of the eighth, batting around against Memphis (11-8) and scoring five runs on four hits. With the sudden, big lead, sophomore and former Sylvan Hills standout DJ Baxendale pitched a perfect ninth in his return to central Arkansas.
Randall Fant (1-1) got the victory after pitching four relief innings.
Pinch hitter Tim Carver got the game-winning hit in the bottom of the eighth inning and recorded his 50th career RBI in the process.
With the score 2-2 and Collin Kuhn on second and Matt Reynolds on first, Carver hit for Kyle Robinson with no outs. On a 2-2 pitch, Carver showed bunt and then knocked a single through the drawn-in infield to score Kuhn and advance Reynolds to third.
Dominic Ficociello drove in another run with a double to left field that scored Reynolds. Bo Bigham increased the lead two batters later when he hit a ground ball to third base and Carver beat the throw to the plate.
Bigham then stole second for his fifth steal of the season. After Matt Vinson worked a walk, Jarrod McKinney came to the plate with the bases loaded and hit a sacrifice fly deep to center field that scored Ficociello.
Jacob Rice provided the final margin with a single to right that drove in Bigham.
Randall Fant, the sophomore left hander from Texarkana, Texas, faced 13 batters, just one over the minimum, and struck out three.
Fant sat down 12 consecutive batters after allowing a single to the first Tiger he faced.
Memphis’ Dane Sharp (0-2) got the loss after allowing four runs in two-plus innings of relief.
Memphis scored first when Chad Zurcher hit a two-out single up the middle to score Drew Martinez, who had worked a walk and stole second, in the top of the third.
The Tigers added another run in the top of the fourth on a one-out RBI double to the left-field corner by Phillip Chapman.
